The Trails of Faith
by Majin Gojira
Summary: Faith is released from prison on a presidential order and proceeds to have a series of misadventures through the greatest cities on earth as she battles for her freedom...but does she want it? Completed at long last
1. Part 1: Darkest Knight, Truest Faith

Title: The Trials of Faith

Author: Majin Gojira

Category: Crossover/Action/Drama

Rating: PG-13 (Which means I can drop the F-bomb only once in either the adjective or the verb forms, but not in the noun form.)

Type of Crossover: Wold Newton Universe Based AU—Buffy: the Vampire Slayer/Corrupted DCU/Many Others

Summary: Faith is released from prison. The only way for her to stay out and stay alive is to take down a legendary figure who some say is a vampire…Gotham city's Batman. Follow her adventures in the 3 cities: Metropolis, Gotham and New York, as she attempts to find redemption and a new life. 

Notes: despite an attempt to remain true to the current comic continuity, this is pretty much an Elseworlds deal, specifically, based on the "An Expansion of the Wold Newton Universe" created by Win Scott Eckert and the companion site, "Secret History of the Wold Newton Universe" created by Denis Power.

The Wold Newton Universe set up like the real world, only incredible things happen there more frequently. It is a crossover universe that connects various characters from pulp-era novels together in a genealogical table based around the idea that all the families involved were connected to a meteor strike near the town of Wold Newton, England. The meteor strike showered those nearby with radiation, causing a beneficial mutation for those exposed to it. Those descended from them inherited the Wold Newton Gene. Members of the Wold Newton Family include Doc Savage, Lord Greystoke/Tarzan, The Shadow, The Spider, G-8, Sherlock Holmes and many others. In the Expanded Wold Newton Universe, other characters are brought in through references, meetings and so fourth. These two are extraordinary people, many of whom are also mutated in a similar fashion—some of which are actually descendants of Wold Newton Family members. These would include (in the first group) the Great Cthulhu, Godzilla, Agents Mulder and Scully, Lara Croft, Indiana Jones, The Rocketeer, and Duncan McLeod among others. In the Second group, we have people Like Buffy Summers, The Incredible Hulk, Superman and the Bionic Woman among many others. There are literally hundreds of characters throughout the history of the Wold Newton Universe who can all co-exist in a singular world without to many changes: from Conan the Barbarian to Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Well, except comic book characters. Since the WNU is based on the real world, things had to be changed, toned down and otherwise altered in order for it to make sense in 'reality'. So don't yell at me for mistakes in the comic continuity for there are very little accepted comic-book continuities in the Wold Newton Universe—hell, even the powers are different IE: SUPERMAN CAN'T FLY HERE! (He falls, with STYLE!).

Legal Stuff: I own nothing. Blah, blah, blah…you know the drill by now.

Distribution: Really? Ok, just ask (hey, it happened once…)

*

Part 1: Darkest Knight, Truest Faith

*

'Entering the light, leaving behind the Dark Knight

Some things are evil, hidden behind a human face

Some things are good, and cover their face

Stumbling from the darkness, Can she choose what is right?'

- Some shitty poem by an even shittier author (AKA, myself)

*

Black.

That was all that Faith could see, a thick black hood hid rested on her head.  She didn't know where she was, nor did she care.  She knew she had been chained to a steel chair. Thick chains as well, as if someone knew whom they were dealing with…which generally was not a good sign.  

She could feel the presence of other people in the room: guards, big ones too.  The more she figured out about the situation, the less she liked it. 

After waiting still for what felt like an eternity, she heard the footsteps of a small groups of people enter the room, and what sounded like others leaving it.  The clicking of their shoes made her twitch a little.  They sounded like business shoes.  Her muscles tightened as fear induced adrenaline seeped into her bloodstream.

'The Council…' she thought, 'God…not the watcher's council…'

Faith prepared for the worst.  

When the hood was finally removed, she snapped her head about as she quickly scanned the room: it was a drab concrete room, almost like her cell.  The only pieces of furniture in the room were the metal chair she sat, chained too, and the desk and table across from her.  On either side of her chair, and of the desk, was a guard. But not just any guard – Secret Service. Sitting at the desk was the President himself: Lex Luthor III, the grandson of the infamous mad scientist from the 40's and 50's. Though he did not share his grandfather's insanity, he shared his determination and intelligence. He had, at first, made himself into a powerful businessman using his grandfather's technology for public and occasionally military use. He later worked a deal with Khan Noonien Sing to further his own political power. He had been badly burned when Khan left earth in 90's, Luthor's company suffered from it slightly—but no one knew of this last part…few people knew of Khan at all, even fewer now, and Faith was not one of those who knew. 

"So…this is where tax dollars go…" She titled her head slightly as she shrugged, "figured."

Lex sat stately in his seat. "I must apologies for the accommodations, Miss… 'Faith'…  But they are a necessary precaution."

Faith's orange prison jumpsuit rustled as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.  "Yeah, well…can't blame you for that…Guess you know about me…ya know…what I am."

"Yes, and that is precisely why I have brought to meet with me." Lex responded, "There is a matter of national security that requires someone with your abilities." 

"Get B then."

"B?"

"Buffy, ya know, the real Slayer.  She's the Chosen One…She's the hero. I'm just a Killer."

"Ah, Ms. Summers. She has made it quite clear that she would not work cooperatively with us under any pretences."

"And that is supposed to make me trust you?" Faith snorted, "What's your game?"

"I take it you've heard about Gotham City's Nocturnal Resident?"

"The Batman?"

Lex nodded.

"Thought he was just some urban legend…Like the Day-Walker or something."

"The government has reason to believe that the Batman is a hostile sub-terrestrial…a 'Demon'.  We want you to track it down and destroy it." Lex told her.  

"…Why?" She asked him, rather bluntly.

"That is a broad question, miss.  Is it 'why should you do it?' or 'why do I want to put down the Batman?'"

"Both, Actually."

"As you might recall, before becoming President I began recovery work in Gotham city.  There are many elements in Gotham that hinder its rise out of the darkness and into the light of a new tomorrow.  The Batman is one of those elements. As to why should you do it…lets just say…the rewards are great and the penalties are harsh."

Faith squirmed at the mention of the recovery work in Gotham city. The "Battle of the Millennium" had been hard on the New York/Metropolis/Gotham City area. She hadn't been awake when it happened, but she saw the damage wrought by both of the main combatants on all three cities. Some areas, like Gotham, were still recovering. Part of her felt sorry for the people who died and lost there homes, the other part felt empowered by that Battle of the Millennium for what it represented to her: the parts that made up the Slayer defeating the ultimate adversary—the enemy of all life. She couldn't dwell on that right now; she needed to focus on Luthor. 

"And if I refuse to be you're little lap dog?"

"Since we are allied with the United Kingdom, you will be brought into the custody of the Council of Watchers, to deal with you as they see fit."

"The reward?"

"Rather simply, freedom.  You will be given a full pardon for you're the crime you have been convicted of and released from prison…as well as a sizable monetary sum."

"…So, it's a 'do it, or else' situation, not very enticing…"

"There is also the fact that by doing this, you can help correct some of those 'mistakes' that you turned yourself in for in the first place.  If you're still attempting to redeem yourself…otherwise…." 

"I am!" Faith declared, " I am…I-I'll do it."

"Very good."  Lex smiled. 

"But not for you." Faith interrupted. "Not for you, not for the money, not for the freedom, and not because of the threats either.  I'm gonna do this for myself. I've been inside for almost 4 years. I want to see how far I've gotten…I want to see if I really have changed…" 

 "Very well." Lex's smile had faded, "You will be briefed on the exact parameters of the mission on your way to Gotham.  Though I should warn you – never underestimate the Batman. He is a foe unlike any other."

"Which is why you called me in the first place isn't it?"

"Yes, it is…and, as you might have guessed--"

"This didn't happen, you weren't here, blah, blah, blah"

"Exactly."

With that, Lex got up and left the room with two of the guards. 'This will indeed prove to be very interesting…' he thought. 

*

That was only a few days ago.  Faith arrived in Gotham City the following morning.  A room was given too her. It was not the nicest place, about on the same level as the place she stayed in while in Sunnydale.  Which, for Gotham City, was considered a 'good' place.  She had been given her old clothes, as well as some new ones – in a similar vein to her old ones, some spending cash, and a cell phone – it was only to be used to confirm the kill. 

Tonight would be he second night in the dark city.  The first night was used in getting a basic lay of the land.  Tonight the hunt began.

As she left the motel, she tried to figure out a game plan. Lex had given her some information on the Batman's habits and hangouts.  She had two theories: the Batman was either a type of Vengeance Demon of Crime; or it was a vampire – as to why it always attacked criminals…given the crime rate of this city, Faith doubted it could anything BUT criminals.  

Faith knew how her patrol would go—

'Certainly been a while since I've gone on one of those…'

For a split second, she was lost in the sea of her own loathing and self-doubt, completely oblivious to the world around her. That second was all it took for her to become a target.

When she raised her head again a gang surrounded her: a generic Gotham City gang out for thrills and money. There were five of them, more than enough to overpower a lone person walking at night.  The fact that they were armed with crude weapons: one had a lead pipe; another had chains; the third had twin switchblades; the biggest of them had brass knuckles. It was the leader's weapon that caught her eye and drew up dark memories.  It was a hunting knife; nearly identical to the one the Mayor had given her when she joined him.  

Faith gazed directly at the leader.  

"Well, this really is a pleasant surprise…" the leader sneered, "Baby, try not to struggle much. I don't wanna mark ya up much…yet anyway." 

The gang followers chuckled in malevolent anticipation as they closed in.  

Faith glowered at them.

"Uh-oh!" the one with the switchblades mocked, "She looks pissed! Better back off!"

Faith took in a deep breath in an effort to calm herself down. "Since you're all…such nice boys…I'm going to give you a little tip…know who you're up against…For me, I'm up against a bunch of …little boys… who formed a gang so they can attack weaker bystanders in an effort to make themselves look tough and to make up for their small penises."

The gang growled and murmured at Faith's rather accurate dissection of their character.  

"Girl, you're in for a world of hurt!" the big one growled as he charged her from behind.  In one simple motion, Faith spun around and punched the poor bastard in the stomach; audible breaking of his ribs was followed by his short flight back several feet, and onto the ground in a stunned heap.  

"You, on the other hand," Faith continued, "are messing with something you have no hope of comprehending." She sneered. "Now, which one of you do I beat to get the info I want?"

After a look of bewilderment, they charged.  And were easily dispatched by the leather clad femme fatale. Faith tried her best to keep the heat of battle from consuming her, but given the level of difficulty they presented, it was a relatively simple task. 

With the gang members broken on the ground, she walked over to the leader – the only one still conscious. Picked him up with one hand and slammed him into the brick wall of a building.   

"Ok, Buddy, I've got some questions I need you to answer.  You don't give me the information I need; I break bones until you do. Got it?" She spewed out in an icy tone.  

The leader nodded vigorously in fear. 

"Good…Now, I need information…About the Batman."

"Wha-What?"

::Crack::

"You heard me? What do you know about the Bat?"

"I-I don't know much…he's like some guy, he goes around at night and, like, stops shit from going down."

"Old news, I need new stuff.  Where can I find him?"

"What? You're looking for the Bat?! No, man. You don't find the Bat, he finds you, man."

"Ok…big help." Faith slammed him into the wall again. "Think harder!"

"Uh, Um…The police sometimes signal him if they're in deep, man.  With this searchlight on tha roof of the station! A-A-and sometimes, he's seen in that place…what's it…oh, Crime Alley! That's it, yeah! Crime Alley!"

"Good boy." Faith said as she let him down. "Run along now, and try to get hit by a bus on your way home."

The man slumped to his knees and coughed, recovering from the interrogation. He got up slowly, "What the hell are you!? Why the hell would anyone want to find that freak!" he shouted as he staggered away, "Eh, probably another freak". 

"If you're gonna blab about this to your little friends" Faith shouted, "Tell them the Slayer's in town, and don't even think about messin' with her… unless you're lookin' to end up in Intensive Care!" 

As he left, in a much greater hurry with the added threat, Faith noticed the hunting knife: a Jackal Dagger—exactly like _her_ dagger—the one the Mayor gave her—and Buffy stabbed her with. She could hear it calling out to her.  It wanted to be in her hand. And a part of her wanted to hold it again…to sink into the darkness…she reached out to it. Turned and ran.  

"Never…again…" she hissed as she stained to regain control...  

*

As She headed down to Crime Alley, she thought about the fight. How cold she was to them.  How easily she did it. It scared her a little. But, though she would say unfortunately, there were signs of improvement – none of them had died, and none were comatose.  Her control had improved…but still had a long way to go.  Her real test would be Batman…if she could remain in control while fighting him…then she would know. 

*

3:34am…

…Still no Bat.  

Faith was beginning to doubt the information she had been given.  She made a mental note to beat on that gang leader she got the information from later, if she saw him again.

She kicked a can along the street in frustration. 

'God, no wonder most people think he's a myth…It's been hours and I haven't-' A pistol-wielding mugger halted Faith's line of thought.

"Alright, gimme your goods, bitch" The mugger smiled.

Silence filled the air for what seemed like an eternity.  

"C'mon lady, I don't wanna hurt ya, just give me your shit and I'll be on my way."

Faith's hand shot to her head, striking her cranium with her palm, as she grunted in disgust.   
  


"I hate this town…this the THIRD time tonight!"

The Mugger looked perplexed.  "Well, if you don't have any cash, I can think of other uses fer ya."

"Oh, no, I still have cash. I'm just trying to figure out how many of you assholes I have to lay out on the street before you bastards get the point!"

"What-" The mugger's sentence was cut off by an attack.  But it didn't come from the Slayer.  

Faith stepped back startled as a mass of darkness leapt from the shadows and tackled the mugger.  The mugger was out cold before he hit the ground. The shadow seemed to morph into a figure, a figure with a distinct insignia on its chest.

'It's him' Faith concluded. 'That's the Batman'

Batman stood over the unconscious criminal like a hawk would its prey.  He turned to look for the girl he had saved, she cracked him a left hook to the gut.  The blow sent him staggering back several feet before he fell on his back. Batman was surprised to say the least.  This girl, half a foot, and more than one hundred pounds smaller than him, had somehow knocked him off his feat.

"Come on! I've been looking for you all night! And THIS is the kind of fight you put up!" Faith taunted. "I'm disappointed!"

Batman said nothing, but prepared for battle.

Faith charged again, attacking the caped crusader in a blur. Batman was beside himself with puzzlement.  This girl had great strength and deadly, if flawed fighting style.  The question as to how this happened would have to wait for now. He looked at the flaws in her style, and quickly took advantage of them.  He grabbed one of her wild punch and threw her into the side of a brick building with a resounding thud. 

Batman hid his amazement, and slight amusement, as the girl shrugged off the blow.

"It'll take a lot more than that to put a Slayer down, Bat." Faith growled before she made a lung at him again.  Batman leapt into the air, but Faith managed to grab onto his cape and pull him back to earth.  Both landed and rolled into a pile of garbage bags left on the street, they formed an undignified heap on the ground.  A hodgepodge of fabric, sweat, trash and limbs.  

A dense fog began to seep from the heap.  By the time Faith freed herself, both the fog, and the Batman were gone.  

"Ah…man. Now I have to spend another day in this hellhole. Damn it!" Faith kicked the brick building, creating a sizable hole in the structure. "I hate this town."

Faith felt the energy coursing through her. The buzz she carried over from the hunt.  She had not felt it since she had been in jail.  Now that it had returned, she was riding high on the feeling, and looking for a way to subdue it. She used to do one of two things: one of which she didn't want to mess with for a long while. She doubted she could keep in control for long if she didn't have a release soon. But she had to at least try.  Another part of her test began.

"Aw, shit."

*

Alfred Pennyworth placed the tray holding Bruce's breakfast at his side near the computer he was working on.  Alfred glanced at the screen for a moment and noticed the image of a young, dark haired girl.

"Looking for a date for the re-opening of the Gotham City Museum, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked in monotone.

"Alfred, have you ever heard of a 'Slayer'?"

"Why yes, I believe I have: If I remember the verses correctly: 'In every generation there is a Chosen One, She alone has the power to fight the vampires, the Demons, and the forces of Darkness, she is the Slayer. When one Slayer dies, another is called to take their place.'  Rather brutish and violent myth if you ask me" said Alfred. 

"Myths can rarely crack ribs, Alfred"

"A Slayer?"

"That's what she called herself. And she seemed to have the power to back up that claim."

"I wonder why she would attack you? Even with your personality, you're still human – Well, at least sometimes."

There was a small moment of silence as the jibe sunk in before Bruce continued.

"For her, being human doesn't seem to be a problem. In 1998, she turned herself in and confessed several accounts of assault, one account of involuntary manslaughter, and two accounts of first degree murder…"

"My word, Sir.  She mustn't have been much more than twenty when she turned herself in"

"What's odd is that the main piece of evidence brought against her was her own confessions. Little corroboration evidence could be found."

"Since she turned herself in like that, its odd to see her back on the street so soon…"

"Maybe she doesn't want to be."

* 

Faith paced all around her small apartment on her unwanted high.  She was frantically trying to control her adrenalin buzz.  She already managed to curb the hunger with a rather large meal, but the buzz remained.  She remembered how she used to handle this: either by screwing something to screw, guy or girl; or killing something.  Unfortunately, things weren't that simple anymore.  The sun was far to high to find something she would allow herself to kill, and this little thing called self-respect kept her from getting off the other way. 

She tried working out for hours with little effect.  If she did not get rid of this adrenalin, it would drive her insane.  Her body needed to be comforted, it needed to know it was safe, that the threat had passed: be it by killing that threat, or finding solace and release with another.

That's when she remembered what her first watcher had tried to teach her: meditation.

She folded her legs as she sat on the bed, closed her eyes, and did what little she could remember about the technique.  Breathing deeply, she could feel her body calm down little by little. 

She began to focus on what her watcher…well, watchers, taught her about various Slayer myths around the world. One caught her attention—about the mother and father gods that gave rise to them. The Mother Goddess was the protector of all life on earth, trying to keep order and preserve nature. The Father God was a god of war and destruction—but it did not relish in the violence, it was indifferent to the destruction. She felt especially connected to this part-for he had returned at the same time that she was called. Another part of life it was. Together, they created the great Protector, a goddess of fire—the fires of destruction and the fires of life. That was the Slayer: Daughter of War and Life. 

When both fought together against the great King of Terror, a part of her felt connected to it in her comatose dreams.

She became too wrapped up in the destruction, though, and that destruction was corrupted from the purifying destruction of the Dark God through her own weakness. Now that she had reconstructed herself, she began to balance the destruction and preservation aspects of the slayer—if there was any truth to the myth…

The meditation was working…but there was something distracting her.  Something itched near her waistline.  She reached back to scratch it, but found something the – something hard.  She picked it off, opened her eyes and look at what she retrieved.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me…"

It was a piece of metal, shaped like a little bat: a tracking device.

Faith heard something move somewhere in her room.  The sun light fading behind the skyscrapers – she had been meditating most of the day.  

"Alright Bat, I know you're in here.  I know you followed me. I mean – c'mon!" she held up the tracer, "Any idiot can tell that this is yours! For someone as stealthy as you, your tracking device is wicked obvious!"

There was a moment of silence; she looked around the room rather frantically – not noticing Batman melt in from the shadows.

"What are you doing in my city?" he said, his voice as cold as liquid nitrogen.

Faith spun around to see his Six-foot-two frame towering over her five-foot-five body.  "Wow, you're certainly imposing, Bats…you wouldn't happen to know a vamp named Angel would you, cuz I swear-"

"WHAT are you doing in my city?" Batman asked again, much more forcefully.

"Well, this!"  With that, Faith swung wide with a punch.  Nicking Batman in the ear of his costume.  Batman nailed her in the jaw, but her head snapped back, generally unfazed.  Batman deflected, and took a few more blows before striking again with two quick, precise pressure point strikes.   Faith staggered back, surprised.

"That…hurt!" She gasped, winded by blows that would have crippled a normal human.

"That was the point." Batman shot back.

Faith charged wildly, Batman countered her directly with a tackle, using his greater mass to his advantage and brought her to the ground.  They rolled across the floor several times as Batman put on a devastating submission hold on the slayer.  

But the hold didn't last very long as Faith broke free and kicked Batman off her, into the closet – splintering the closed door to it into many pieces.  

Both took a little while to recover from their last exchange.

Faith got her bearings a little faster.  As Batman stood up, she grabbed the bed and pinned him against the wall as he exited the closet.  Then, she began to crush him between the wall and the bedpost – the drywall began to crack behind him. Batman was being crushed and suffocation began to set in as Faith put more and more pressure on him. 

"What the fuck is all--!" the landlord shouted as he entered the room, his face changed from anger to shock "Oh My God" He quickly scampered out of the room.

That distraction was all he needed.  He reached into his belt and pulled out a batarang.  He swung it at the slayer with a furious speed.  But before it could strike, she caught it. With only one arm on the bed, Batman was able to kick out.  The bed flipped up towards Faith as she ducked and rolled out of the way.  When she stopped, she sent the batarang flying back towards its owner – who caught it as well

"Sunnuva bitch…" Faith grunted.

Batman returned the batarang to his belt, as he reached down, Faith was already upon him.  He blocked and parried as many blows as he could, until Faith struck Batman square in the jaw.  

He was knocked back to the wall and prepared for the next wave of assault…but it never came.

Faith looked down at her hand and saw red. She had blood on her hands. His blood. Human blood.  

"No…" she staggered back, "No…"

Faith backed away from Batman, slumped against the wall and huddled in a corner.  And in a fetal position, she rocked back and forth. Afraid.  

Batman could here Faith repeat to herself; between shallow, ragged breathes: "I'm not a killer, I'm not a killer…"

"Why did you come here, Faith?"  Batman asked.  

"H-He…he told me you were a demon…Damn it…even when I want to do good…fate screws me over once again…"

"Who sent you?"  
  


"Gee, how many people want you dead that you even have to ask that?"

"A Lot"

Faith gave a rather breathy, forced chuckle. "Well, here's a clue, he holds the highest office in the land, and his first name is 'Lex'"

"Luthor."

"Eh, got it in one." She tried to lighten the mood.  Batman's face remained unmoving, except for the trickle of blood down his jaw line.

"Why did you take the job?"

"Why do you think?" Faith asked, the shock passing from her, turning into anger. "He was holding all the cards, knew what ones to play too…plus, that bastard told me what I wanted to hear…that you were a threat, and this was a chance to…to…make up for some…mistakes…"

"25 to life imprisonment for second degree Murder, one charge of Involuntary Manslaughter, numerous cases of assault, breaking and entering, theft, prostitution, indecent exposure…"

"That last one's actually a rather funny story…but…I doubt you'd care." Faith stood back up, regaining her composure. "…God…I should have learned not to trust politicians, but good ol' Faith screws up again…"

She walked over to the Capped Crusader, shaking slightly as he stood as a firm pillar in the gloom of the starless city night. 

"Listen…I…I'm sorry." Faith told him as she moved closer to him, seeking some support. "This is g'nna sound weird 'n all, specially since I just tried to kill you and all…but…I…kinda need your help."

"Help?"

"See…one of the threats Lexy pulled was sending me to England…to the Watcher's council."

"Who are they?"

"Tweed covered British guys who keep tabs on Slayers…they usually train, guide, keep an eye out for 'um…shit like that. Some are cool…but most of them are pretty much stuck in like the twelfth century… I mean... they put B through this test… Cir… Circum… no… Bah, whatever I can't remember or pronounce what it was called!  Anyway, they took away her powers and locker her in a room with some real nasty vamp when she turned 18…Course she survived, because you know…it's Buffy."

"Buffy?"

"The other…the real Slayer…"

"I thought there could only be one?"

"Oh, she died…twice already…" Faith kicked the dust on the ground, "She gets all the breaks…" she then took a deep calming breath, "Anyway, the council would just love to get their paws on me…last time they tried, they said something about being put on trail in 'their' court…basically to find a way of 'legalizing' them killing me to get another Slayer who'll, they hope, they'll be able to control." Faith sighed. "In the end, it's about power…who has it…and what you do with it."

A marked silence stood between them.  Faith noticed a crack in Batman's unflinching stance.

"Looks like you've learned that lesson a long ways back…" Faith said as she reached towards Batman, who jerked himself aside.  Faith withdrew her hand and suddenly felt very awkward.

"Sorry…" she murmured, she too knew what it was like to have old wounds brought to the surface.  The Batman seemed to be little phased after the initial jerk. 

"So…why does Lexy want you dead?" Faith asked, returning to her mask of bravado she once used to fool many people.

"Luthor and I had some…dealings in the past." Batman told her, "For one, I managed to foil an attempt of his to frame Bruce Wayne"

"Lex did that?"

Batman nodded.

"You really can't trust politicians…" she said with a small twinge in her voice.

"Secondly, you of course know about some of the…animosity between him and Superman."

"What kind of idiot doesn't…wait…I know the answer to that one…"

"For a while, Luthor had a ring of kryptonite, I relieved him of it."

"So, you stole it from him"

He nodded.

Faith just gave him an odd look. "Ok, answer-man. Answer this, why would Lex want ME dead?"

"Luthor does not like Meta-humans…and besides…I don't think he wants you dead."

"Huh?"

"He just wants you here, why, I'm not sure yet."

"How can you tell?"

"Luthor is never this direct, he prefers to orchestrate things that will end in his favor."

Faith blinked, "…Oh"

She then noticed that the Batman's gaze was diverted out the window. When she angled herself to see what he was looking at, she saw a large spotlight reflecting off the clouds with a Bat insignia on it.

"Now that has GOT to be an ego-booster" Faith jested.

Batman ignored the comment. 

"So, I take it you're going to go dashing off n' all that…"

"You can't come along"

This hit Faith like a punch in the gut…that was not how things like this were supposed to go… 'Weren't heroes supposed to help each other after the tacky super-hero-fight thing?' she wondered.

"What?" 

"I don't want an escaped felon who is having problems controlling her anger—who can easily kill someone with their bare hands, following me around like a wounded puppy. Stay put until--"

Faith, on reflex alone, slapped him hard, sending Batman sprawling on the floor. 

"You self-righteous prick!" Faith growled, "Just because I've made some mistakes in the past doesn't make me an uncontrollable animal! I'm not like that anymore! I've learned to control that part of me! And I've done a damn good job of it. I haven't killed anyone by accident since Finch!"

Batman took note of her knowing the victim's name as he got back up.

"Tight-ass! You won't let me try to redeem myself! Why do you think I turned myself in the first place, asshole! Ya know what, Screw you! I don't need your help! I'll handle this myself! Now, get the HELL out of my room!"

Faith fought every urge in her body not to throw the caped crusader out the door, or window, part of her was debating which was closer. She let Batman go to the window and swing off into the night. Faith let out a sigh of relief as he left her room, and hopefully her life.

She looked around the mess her room, "Damn it…"

*

Later that evening

_The Greasy Spoon_ _Bar & Grill_

"That little Bitch" a mugger, Vinny, exclaimed, "I hate this town! Another freak show goin' around makin' my life a livin' hell!" 

"Hell, another one?" the large man next to him asked as he gulped down another beer. 

"Yeah, this town is full of 'um: Spider-girl, Superman, Batman…now this new one…this-this 'Slayer' bitch!"

"'Slayer'?" The big guy snorted, "As if the other's weren't bad enough…I don't like the sound of this one…"

"You shouldn't…man, she's not in this to arrest us or anything, and she's out to put people in hospitals or worse! At least we'll get to look at something pretty before we bite it."

"What?"

"She's a God Damn Vixen."

"Well, which one of the ladies doin' that costumed vigilante gig ain't, Vinny?"

"Good point."

The two criminals laughed. 

"Is her outfit as tight-fitting as the others are?"

"I swear, man, it's tighter!"

As the conversation degraded, two eavesdroppers tuned the conversation out and began to mull over the implications of what they said. 

Unknown to either, two other people were listening distinctly to this conversation. Ever since the word 'Slayer' was mentioned. Both had heard stories of the Slayer—the ultimate warrior, the Chosen One. Both of their minds worked with ideas of this goal. One thought of this Slayer, if she was who she claimed to be, to be her ultimate and final challenge as a warrior. The other thought of her as a tool for his master, worthy of the great Devil Doctor's needs. 

From different doors: Bane and Lady Shiva left the bar and began to hunt the same target…

*


	2. Part 2: Reviving the Past

Title: Trails of Faith part 2: Reviving the Past

Author: Majin Gojira

Category: Crossover/Action/Drama

Rating:  PG-13

Type of Crossover: Wold Newton Universe Based Crossover AU.

Summary: Faith, after finding out Batman is Human, she struggles with what her next move will be…and decided to blow off some steam at a club…you know this won't end well.

Legal Stuff: I own nothing. Blah, blah, blah…you know the drill by now.

Distribution: Really? Ok, just ask (hey, it happened once…)

*

Lex Luthor the Third stared in surprise as his private phone began to ring. Only on person had the number of this phone, and he knew what a call from that phone meant.

He picked up the receiver and greeted the caller in a cheerful voice "Why, Hello, I take it everything has gone as you hoped?"

"You lied to me, asshole!" Faith shouted from the other end. 

"Slander is a very serious accusation, Miss" Luthor kept his calm and cheery demeanor, much to Faith's annoyance.

"The Bat, he's human! You told me he was a demon!"

"We had reason to believe he was a HST. Since, I take it from the irritation in your voice, it turned out that he isn't-"

"You knew!"

"Pardon?"

"You knew he was human the entire time and still had me sent up with the idea that he was a demon! You SON OF A BITCH!"

"Now, now, there's no need to get angry. I was as in the dark as you were."

"You God Damn Liar! You tried to turn me into what I was! I NEVER WANT TO BE A KILLER AGAIN! AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO CHANGE THAT!"

"…Are you done?"

"…"

"Good. There is something you should know about me, Faith. I don't like Batman's kind"

"His kind?"

"He's a vigilante, taking the law into his own hands. Elevating himself above the common citizen."

"God knows we can't have anyone above the common citizen except for those elected by them to that above-them-state."

Faith could hear Luthor's grimaced, "You're just as bad as they are. You're expendable. But you also serve a valuable purpose. I need you to fill that purpose in Gotham. We've located several HST nests in the Gotham city, Metropolis and greater New York area—we want you to clean them out."

Faith subdued a growl before she could speak, "…What'm I dealing with, vamps, demons, other odd stuff"

"A mixture of all three"

"Damn…lemme guess, you're not going to pardon me until I do a satisfactory job cleaning up the city."

"My, you are a fast learner."

"No, I'm just getting used to working for super-villains" Faith tried to shrug off her guilt, "So how do I find these nests?"

"The phone converts to a tracking device when the star button is hit. That will lead you to your targets."

"Ya know… I'm really hoping that after all this is over, that you get vamped so I have the pleasure of staking you myself."

"The feeling is mutual, I assure you."

*

Faith hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket. "Great, now I'm another evil politicians lackey…my life just plain sucks…" Faith let out a remorseful sigh, then shouted, "Screw him! Why should I believe him? Or follow his orders after he set me up like that!? I'm gonna have some fun while I'm here. I'm in the Three Cities! I'll find some place to unwind here, hell, how could I NOT?"

*

Batman thought long and hard about what the commissioner had told him. He was afraid of what it might mean.  He thought the worst was over with. Now, there was this thing running around _his_ city. A group calling itself "The Talons of the King of Terror", a blight upon the world like the thing they worshiped. 

He knew that the Cult would wreak carnage wherever it went, it was only a matter of time before it killed en mass. 

"Dad?" A slight voice called out from behind him, one he recognized immediately, that of his little girl: Lana Wayne; the third generation of Wayne's to take up the mantel of the Bat. "Is something wrong?" she asked. 

According to the now Wayne funded Comics, this new Batgirl was Cassandra Cain. Dispersing these things to create disinformation, and a little extra money from them, was the purpose of those comics, that and to keep an aura of disbelief among the general public. Who would believe what was being told in the comics anyway? The only real similarity Lana shared with Cassandra was her look and some of her fighting ability.

In the Comics, Lana, or rather, Cassandra was a highly skilled martial artist. While true, they made sure not to include one important thing: She was one quarter Kryptonian. She couldn't leap tall buildings in a single bound, but she was naturally at peek human performance: able to give Captain America a run for his money (who, even after almost sixty years he was still at the top of his game). 

She was also very perceptive. She could always tell when something was bothering Bruce, just by looking at him and his body language. 

"There's something new in Gotham." He told her.

"Is it this Slayer character I've heard you talking about?" She asked.

"No, something worse…something people are calling the Talons of the King of Terror…'The Talons of King Ghidorah'"

A profound silence filled the Batcave.

Everyone knew, at least in part, about what happened…and what that name meant. At the turn of the millennium, the space monster King Ghidorah came to earth intent on whipping out all life. He had been stopped in New York by the combined forces of Mothra, Godzilla and G-Force 'Raptors'—special Anti-Kaiju attack Helicopters.  The battle was long and bloody. In the aftermath of it, much of Gotham city lay in ruins, and it was quartered off as a 'No Mans Land'. Leaving Batman and his family to deal with the crime, the homeless, the Radiation and the toxic blood of the King of Terror. The comics attributed to an Earthquake what Godzilla and Ghidorah wrought. That way they could ignore the truly horrifying aspects of the rampage—Shokilas- five-foot parasites; Radiation; the toxic blood; the agents of various governments and corporations out collecting samples of both Godzilla and King Ghidorah for their own purposes. Batman and his extended family did their best, but when it was all settled, Bruce felt he didn't do enough.

"I thought we dealt with the last of the repercussions of that incident." Lana scowled. 

"Apparently not."

"Damn…as soon as I finish with the Blood Rave Rapist Case, I'll deal with this one." She told him. "Dad…please don't go rushing off against these wackos."

Lana worried about her father getting to old for this, he was in his early fifties. He didn't heal from nightly excursions like he used to. Nor did he heal like she did. She could take far more punishment than he ever could. She worried about him; he was only human after all. 

His answer surprised her though "Like you could stop me?"

He was right, though. In all of their training together, She rarely bested him. She also knew it couldn't be chalked up to him 'letting' her win. Her Father never would do that. 

"I know, that's why I have to ask you not to." She told him as she wrapped her arms around his chest while he sat before the computer, giving him an assuring hug. "I worry about you, Dad."

"Just don't let it cloud you judgment." That was Bruce's way of saying 'I worry about you too'.

*

Faith left her apartment decked out in skintight black leather pants, a revealing, and yet classy deep maroon top. She knew where she was heading. This was not the first time she had been in Gotham. It was here, actually, New York, where she met her Watcher. She had told the folks in Sunnydale that her Watcher was dead. It was, at best, a half-truth. 

When she came to New York, she came seeking America's greatest living authority on the Supernatural: Dr. Egon Spengler. He told her what she was, trained her, and was later officially recognized as her watcher.  She stayed in New York for a few months before she and Kylie Griffin went down to New Orleans to deal with a rising there…that's where she met Kakistos. That's where Kylie died. 

'Damn it, why'd I remember that?' she thought; as her pace slowed down to match her mood. 

Within seconds, she found herself surrounded by street thugs.

She looked over them and sighed openly "Not AGAIN!"

She was about to rant about how stupid they all were when a blow from a crowbar to the back of the skull surprised her. It hit her with a low 'thunk' and she fell to the ground in a daze. 

'That HURT!' She mentally exclaimed as she rolled over to her side as the thugs moved in. The other thugs began to repeatedly hit her with their fists, feet and metal objects. Not doing much damage by themselves, no where near as much as the precision strike to the skull, but it was enough to keep her on the ground for now. 

Her world was still painful when she heard a low voice bark, "Hey! You lousy punks! Leave the girl alone!"

"It's Old Man Grimm!" One of the thugs shouted.

"Screw Old Man Grimm! We ain't gonna let no old, has-been, ass-hole wrestler push the Scorpions around!" another yelled, obviously the leader.

The Scorpions, Faith remembered reading about them, and how Spider-man often thwarted their plans. She was currently wondering where the wall crawling hero was until she remembered hearing that he had unofficially retired from the costumed vigilante business. 

Faith looked up at who her savior was: He was an old man; he looked about 70 or so. His short hair was grayed and his skin was tanned, wrinkled and callous. He was no small man by any means. Despite his age, he looked very fit, and at a little over six feet tall, he was a well-preserved old man. 

"I told you kid's I'd unload a wuppin' if I caught ya doin' this crap!" Old Man Grimm growled.

"Shut up!" The leader yelled as he drew a gun and fired three times into Grimm's chest. He fell to the ground. "Now let's get back to business" he stated as they turned their attention back to Faith.

Her eyes were filled with pure hatred. She had witnessed, and done, many horrible things…but this struck a chord deep within her. She slowly rose to her feet and clenched her fists tight.

"Oh, look, she still needs to be softened up," the gunman said as he approached Faith with a sauntering walk. 

Before he could react, she reached out, grabbing the gun in his hand, crushing it and his fingers in one swift movement. She kicked him in the gut and sent him flying across the street. As she landed on her outstretched foot, she spun out with the other and hit three of the other thugs. They fell to the ground with a groan. Her look was of pure hatred as she sized up the others. 

Suddenly, out of the blue, an oddly familiar voice rang out "Ok, you bastards asked for this! It's Clobberin' Time!" as a Stony figure proceeded to trample three other thugs before her. As it passed her, she noticed the Golem's shirt-it had 3 blood stained holes in it. 

Faith put the pieces together very quickly: Stony Giant, Old Man Grim, "Clobberin' Time".

She was standing in front of the 'Ever Lovin' Thing, one of the "Fantastic" Four. But how did he survive the Bullets? After she was done thrashing these guys, she'd have to ask him. 

She felt the blood rage she felt return to the recesses of her mind as the two of them proceeded to wipe the floor with the thugs. 

The Thing grabbed two of them by the head and threw them into the side of a nearby building, where they slumped together in a heap. Faith began to get an Idea and began to throw thugs into that same wall, leaving one huge pile. 

When it was over, the Scorpions were left unconscious and on the ground, strewn about like rag dolls.

The Thing breathed heavily and coughed—a sign of old age and deteriorating health (or possibly too many cigars when he was younger), "Damn Punks" he huffed, reverting back to his human form. "I told them not to come 'round here or there'd be trouble…maybe now they'll listen. You OK, little girl?"

"Yeah. Thanks for the assist…just don't call me 'little girl', K?" Faith looked herself over, "Fuck! Hey, you don't happen to know a place where I can clean up?"

Ben stood up, still breathing heavily, "My place is just across the street. You can probably clean up there…" Off Faith's look, he added "Please, I could be your Grandfather, don't take it like that. C'mon. I'll show you in"

Ben led her inside his humble home. She quickly scanned it over, it looked something like a bachelor pad of a 20 year old…but there was a definite elderly touch to the place that gave it an air of comfort, also the very distinct smell of 'old man'.

"So, how did you survive bein' shot?" Faith asked as she cleaned up in the bathroom.

"I heal real fast." Ben answered, "been that way since I changed."

"Guess that never made it into the comics, huh?" 

"Hell, according to those things, I shouldn't be able to transform back and forth at will." Ben smiled, "At first that was true, but I've had transforming under control for the last twenty-five years."

"So, what was up with that 'I told them not to come 'round here' stuff?"

"Just that. I've kept this area free of gangs since I moved in and I intend to keep doin' that."

"Just can't drop the hero biz, can ya?" Faith smiled as she left the washroom, refreshed and cleaned up.

"Nah" Ben smiled, "It's like a drug; Helpin' people. It feels good every time you do it. Even if you don't get any recognition for it…it just _feels_ right."

"I know what you mean…Thanks for lettin' me clean up." Faith smiled.

"No problem…uh…you never said what your name was."

"My names Faith" She said as she headed for the door. "Thanks again."

"No problem."  Ben smiled as the door closed behind the girl.

When he was sure she was gone, he went to the phone and dialed up an old contact. "Hey, Pete? Oh, Hi Gwen, It's Ben Grimm. Can you put your husband on-I just met someone I think you'd better keep an eye on…"__

*

A tribal rhythm echoed through the concrete, steel and glass canyons of Gotham City. Attracting masses of young people to a place where primal needs were met for sustenance, lusts and other such guttural needs. The temperature inside the club was a good hundred degrees simply from body heat of the masses within, which created a good head of steam in the cool night air. The fact that they were moving around in at a quickening pace only increased the heat produced. 

Hundreds of smells assaulted Faith's nostrils as she entered the club. Sweat, perfumes, flowers, pig and human pheromones…and of course, alcohol, pot, and a lot of ecstasy. 

She slid across the dance floor moving her body in time with the beats. When she found herself a comfortable spot—surrounded with several well built men—she let it all out: her tensions, her frustrations, her pent up energy. All of it was released with the rocking and swaying of her body. All worries were forgotten and all problems put aside. This was a moment of happiness, one of the few ones in her life. Faith always felt at home on the dance floor. It was an escape from the troubles of her life when she was younger. Now, it fulfilled that purpose once again. 

Lights flashed and smoke rose from the crowd as Faith's pours opened up in an attempt to cool her body down, releasing a trickle of sweat laced with slayer-enhanced pheromones.

Something from the corner of her eye took Faith out of her blissful state, one of the other dancers on the floor. It was a girl, a little younger than Faith was. A long, yet pretty face and dark hair cropped to about the back of her neck topped her head. Her lithe form was garbed in pastel colored top and dark pants perfectly designed for a club like this. It wasn't so much the look of this girl that caught Faith's attention, but the way she moved. She was incredibly flexible. Laymen would not notice how fluid and…unnatural her motions and flexibility was, but Faith noticed. She made note to keep an eye on that girl through the night.

*

High above the dance floor in a secluded private box a meeting was taking place. 

"Ah, Gwen, so nice to see you again"

"Fisk, always a pleasure to work for a guy who knows how to pay well"

"I have a job that requires someone with your special talents." 

"When don't you have a need for them?" Gwen grinned coyly. 

"The information required for the job is in the portfolio in front of you" Wilson Fisk, better known to the criminal world as 'the Kingpin' said as Gwen picked up the portfolio and looked through it. Few people knew that Wilson Fisk was a pseudonym. His real name was Lawrence Luthor, technically, he was a clone of the original Lex Luthor, but cloning never did produce exact duplicates. One of his 'brothers' was currently the President; the other—after getting a doctorate in 'Evil'—had frozen himself in the 1960s to escape a very 'shagadelic' British secret service agent.

"I trust everything is in order." Said Fisk.

"Yep. So, Dragon's Heart Ruby, also called "The Heart of the Dragon"…got special plans for it?"

"Indeed I do. I might suggest you take up your Grandfather's old mantle incase you encounter any of those annoying…costumed vigilantes" 

Gwen frowned at the mentioning of her grandfather: Max Dillon, a.k.a. Dan McCormick a.k.a. Electro a.k.a. the Shocker. No matter what the name, she still loathed his very existence. It was his genes that made her what she is: a Mutant. A Freak.  She inherited a genetic anomaly created by random mutation, a freak accident and the Nazi's manipulation of various scientists. Now, she had that power to kill with a simple touch and even project lightning bolts at her enemies if she had enough power in her. She hated them all for it: her father, the scientists and the Nazi's; but tried her best to use her 'Freak' nature to the best of her advantage. Even once dressing as "Electra" to frighten a bank as a diversion for Kingpin. He paid her extra of that gig, and double it's original price due to the interference of Spider-girl. 

"What's the weather like?"

"Spider. Bats. A Bird. Statues. And, of course our red and blue resident. Though word on the street is that there is a new player in the game who is acting much differently from the average vigilante in Gotham."

"How so?"

"Well, first off, she foregoes the normal formalities…she doesn't turn in criminals. She brutalizes them. She also won't be easy to spot…this one doesn't wear a costume."

"Why do they wear those ridiculous costumes anyway? It's like they got some deep-seated psychological issues or something"

"Probably. I suggest you hurry before this "Slayer" tries to make a name for herself…the same rules apply to her as they do for the regulars"

"I've never taken up on that extra, so why do you keep suggesting it to me Big Willy?"  
  


"Because one day I hope you will." Said Fisk. As he did, Gwen could feel the cold darkness emanating from her employer. It unnerved her a little, but she had grown used to it. 

*

Faith's attention was drawn away from 'flexi-girl' by a tingling sensation in the back of her mind—her slayer sense. She instinctively turned to see something freighting familiar: a dark haired woman being lead out of the club into a back ally by a man without a heartbeat.

There were probably more of them in here, but it would be nearly impossibly to track them. Their body heat would be room temperature, meaning that they would be indistinguishable from normal people except for the presence of a heartbeat. 'Best deal with this one first before I need to root out any others…damn it, I wanted a nice quiet night out!' Faith thought as she quietly followed them outside.

Unknown to the slayer, the girl she was watching also followed the out, though only after a quick change. 

A third woman watched this scene with interest, and followed them out. 

*

Faith knew this scene all too well, vamp leads victim to alley, vamp bites victim, vamp kills victim. It was a scene played out every night all over the world. As the Slayer, Faith did her best to stop it where she found it. 

When she came on the scene, the vamp had already had her pinned and was about to sink his teeth into her neck. He was in for a rude surprise.

"This a private party or can anyone join the fun?" She taunted. 

"Wait your turn…" the vampire arrogantly replied as he turned to bite the scarred girl he had pin need to the wall. 

Faith grabbed the guy and threw him across the alley in one smooth motion.

"I'm not much for waiting." She punned.

The humanoid leech was in shock, he didn't react as Faith kicked him in the head and sent his stunned form to the floor. She went in for the finishing blow when twin white globs shot forth, one pinned the vampire to the ground in a net of what appeared to be spider-webs, the other wrapped around Faith's stake and stuck it to the wall. 

"Hey!" Faith shouted as she turned to the source of the white substance. On the wall, clinging like a fly was an infamous red-blue and black costume with a decidedly feminine shape to it. 

"Sorry, I don't like killing on my turf, even if he is a rapist scum and deserves it." Intoned the wall-crawling Spider-girl.

"He's not a Rapist!" Faith shouted

"Who says I ain't!" the vampire yelled.

"Wow, a confession. Thanks!" said Spider-girl with a large grin even her mask could not hide. 

The Vampire growled, uncaring. 

"Ok, he's not only a rapist, he's a vampire!" Faith broke off a piece of wood from a piece of trash and moved towards it and rammed the stake through his heart, as Spider-girl shouted "NO!"

The vampire crumbled to dust before their eyes. 

"I told you he was a vampire." Faith said smugly.

"He was also the Blood Rave Rapist" A new voice said.

"Batgirl?" Spider-girl asked as the woman in question landed between Faith and Spider-Girl.

Batgirl looked at Faith, "So, you must be this "Slayer" that Batman was telling me about."

"Yeah, that's me. Faith: the Vampire Slayer." Faith said "and that was me slaying a Vampire."

"Not just any vampire, I've been tracking him for months," Batgirl told her. "It wasn't until recently that I figured out what exactly he was."

"Lemme guess—around the time I plunged the stake into his heart" Faith teased.

"And Faith here finds him and deals with him a whole lot faster than you have, that's gotta hurt the ego" Spider-girl joked.

"It's what I do." Faith smiled "don't feel bad, I've been hunting vampires since I was teenager. This is old hat stuff."

"As is going around beating up street punks?" Batgirl asked, clearly not amused.

"Nah, that's new, and kinda required around these parts." Faith told her, a mild resentment building between them.

Spider-girl looked at them, slightly perplexed.

"I guess Batman filled you in on my past." Faith told the other girl as they inched towards each other in a threatening manner.

"He did." Batgirl told her. 

"I hope you realize that it's exactly what I said it was, the past"

"…And I'm getting the feeling I'm missing a whole lot of back story here" Spider-girl thought aloud.

"The Slayer here hasn't just been slaying vampires." Batgirl told.

"I messed up, OK!" Faith added quickly, "That's behind me now and you _really_ shouldn't bring that up."

"Saying you're sorry and being sorry are two entirely different things."

Faith scowled darkly, but before she could respond, Spider-girl interrupted,  "Now Ladies, I don't want to web both of you to the wall, but if you keep this up, I will."

A loud crash followed by a scream en mass. 

"Saved by the scream … you comin' to help or no?" Faith asked the two costumed vigilantes.

"Yes" Batgirl answered.

"Why not." Spider-girl answered, but as they began to enter, she added. "Hey, we get to do the superhero team up thing without the gratuitous superhero fight! This has got to be a first!" 

Faith let loose a sharp laugh as the door closed behind them.

*

**One, Hour-Long, Rousing Action Sequence Later**

*

"What a horrible adventure with that Ham Demon…" Faith sighed. 

The three warriors were slumped against a table that had fallen on its side. All of them, as well as most of the insides of the club, were covered with a thin layer of pink, liquefied ham. 

"I'll say," Spider-girl, whipping off some more pink slime from her suit, a futile effort for all of them. "Man…this stuff had better come out…otherwise I'll be down another suit"

"Which is why I don't bother with them…to much maintenance." Faith said as she flung some of the ham-smelling gunk off herself.

"I'll say" Spider-girl obviously smiled beneath her mask. 

"You probably shouldn't have let it swallow you" Batgirl told her flatly. "Stomach acid stains are hard to get out…"

"Damn" Spider-girl cursed.

"How, exactly, do you know that?" Faith asked her, incredulously.

"Don't. Ask." Batgirl said firmly. 

For a few seconds, the three sat in the filth left from the demon's combustion, not saying a word, just in a mild amount of shock at what had happened.

"That was…interesting" Batgirl intoned, "Is it always that messy with Demons?"

"Thankfully, no." Faith told her, "They usually don't pop like a zit when they die…but the slime…yeah, that's usually there."

Finally, catching up with the sheer absurdity of their current situation, the three heroines simply laughed aloud, at least, until their injuries caught up with their laughter and they moaned, and then laughed again at the simultaneous nature of it. 

*

Faith left the club very wet. She had done her best to clean up in the sink. She didn't want to walk back to her apartment covered in pink slime. 

Egon had told her what doing that could bring. 

But still, she was walking back to her room extremely wet. 

"I take it you're the Slayer" a distinct and harsh voice caused Faith to turn around sharply to see its source.

Standing before her was an Asian woman, several inches taller than her. She was lithe yet muscular; the way she held herself sent chills down her spine. This woman was a trained killer…very well trained.

"I am Lady Shiva"

"…Good for you"

Lady Shiva looked at Faith incredulously and continued. "I have been searching around the world for many years to find the ultimate warrior. I never expected to actually encounter a Vampire Slayer. Now, I can find out if I am truly the greatest fighter in the world."

'Damn, this lady is nuts' Faith thought.

"You and I will fight until the one of us is dead."

"What? Right now?"

"Preferably"

"Listen Lady Diva—"

"Shiva"

"Whatever. I just finished up a long night of fighting street thugs and battling with a Ham Demon…yes a HAM demon: fifteen feet of Pork muscle. I'm tired, I'm bruised and I really am in no mood to deal with some who wants to get beaten to death…and I'm not one to do that kind of thing anymore. I don't kill humans"

"Than that will put you at a disadvantage, hopefully, it will mean I will be able to stand on par with you."

"You really have some kind of complex don't you."

With that, Lady Shiva and Faith took fighting stances. Faith knew there was no avoiding this fight, all she needed to do was knock her opponent out and that would be that. She knew it wouldn't be easy, but she was unprepared for the skills of Lady Shiva.  In less than a second, several masterful blows struck Faith, causing her to stagger back. A strong kick caught her off balance and Faith landed on her butt.

"You are supposed to be the Slayer" Lady Shiva snorted, "Show me what you truly are!"

"Fine!" Faith growled and launched herself into a furious attack. 

Lady Shiva parried and dodged the untrained blows—but they were coming faster than even she expected. She attempted to block the next hit, only to have her own fist shoved in her face. The punch was too powerful to block, she landed on her back with a puff of wind escaping her lungs. 

She rose slowly; smiling as she wiped blood from her now cut lip. Faith was the essence of focus. 

"Very good" Lady Shiva quietly spoke as she rose "this will be an excellent battle" 

"Why does she have to be a masochist…" Faith whispered before attacking again. 

Lady Shiva gave up trying to block any of her attacks and focused more on dodging and parrying them. When the moment presented itself, she struck out at Faith's knee, which spun out with a thunderous crunch. 

Faith howled in pain as she fell to the ground—she slowly pulled herself up and with one sharp flexing of her muscle, she set her knee back into place.

Shiva smiled wickedly at this newest development.

Faith quickly looked around for something she could use to end this fight quickly—she found an empty, half-crushed soda can by her feet. She tapped her foot sharply on an end of it, sending the can into the air in front of her. With one swift kick, she launched the projectile at her opponent. 

Lady Shiva contemptuously blocked the can that was careening toward her head. That one-second lapse of concentration was the opening Faith needed to spring to the attack. 

Faith punched Lady Shiva in the jaw, sending a spray of blood, as well as a single tooth, from her mouth. Faith followed with a knee to Shiva's stomach, and a kick to her back that sent Shiva into a nearby wall. 

Shiva was ready though and bounced off the wall and nailed Faith with a corkscrew kick to her skull. Faith fell but recovered into a cartwheel and landed on her feet—a little worse for wear.

Lady Shiva went on the offensive, trying to injure Faith with a series of well-placed kicks. Faith countered with a few punches of her own, which seemed to do a lot of damage to Lady Shiva. Lady Shiva retaliated with a devastating combo: A Heart punch followed by a 'spear-hand' to her kidney. 

Faith doubled over in pain as her body recovered from a combination that could kill a normal human being—but Shiva did not relent her assault. Shiva crack Faith's skull on her knee and sent the slayer sprawling on her back.

"Is this the Slayer? The chosen warrior?" Lady Shiva sneered, "You are pathetic. You are supposed to be a warrior of great repute. Why should that repute be given to you?"

Faith went to attack her in her arrogance, but Shiva kicked her blow aside. Faith spun around only to meet Shiva's knuckles. Faith was ready with a counter this time and spun herself around and delivered a kick to Shiva's temple. The blow was powerful enough to send Shiva flying into the street. Where she slid for ten more feet before stopping at the other sidewalk. 

"Oh, I can see some reasons for it…" Faith said as Shiva lay there unmoving.

Faith began to worry…not even Shiva's breathing was evident. She quickly made her way over to the fallen martial artist and checked for signs of life. She felt a grip on her throat as Shiva rose.

"You...You will have to kill me…if you want to stop me" Shiva coughed out as she then rolled Faith over her and kicker her away. Faith was sent careering toward a dumpster—her spine nearly snapping on the edge of the open dumpster, which she did not have the honor of flipping into. Instead she fell foreword and hit the pavement face first. 

Shiva waltzed over to the pain-wracked body of the slayer and picker her up to her knees by raising her head. 

" Maybe the next in your line will provide me with the true challenge I need." Shiva sneered again as she moved into kill the Slayer with a move from her Krav-maga arsenal—a strike to the throat with the skin between the thumb and first finger, a move designed to snap the base neck of any opponent. 

Faith pivoted her head sharply as the hand of the world's foremost martial artist zoomed toward her and changed the destination of the blow. Instead of hitting her neck, it hit her collarbone, which produced a sickening crack—both of Faith's ribs and of Lady Shiva's Thumb and index finger. 

Shiva reared back as Faith fell forward and clutched her chest. Faith soon rose as her body began to mend itself. 

Shiva clutched her broken hand long enough for Faith to rise and partially recover, streaming out a string of expletives and curses in a language that to Faith sounded like tiny stones falling in water. 

"You want the Slayer, Shiva? I'll give her to you!" Faith roared as she initiated the next attack. Reduced to defending with only one hand, Shiva was no longer holding her own as she once was with the shorter girl before her. 

Faith saw her opening and took it—punching Shiva squarely in the nose with a sickening crack as her nose shattered in a bloody display. But as Shiva flew back, Faith grabbed her by the ankles and swung her around—slamming Shiva into the brick wall of an adjacent building. Faith heard Shiva call out in pain as her shoulder dislocated and her hop cracked. Faith swung her up against the wall again, further damaging her hip, arm, shoulder and also slamming her skull against the brick. This time, Shiva did not scream. Faith dropped the unconscious warrior at her feet and promptly collapsed herself, gulping air like a fish out of water. 

She rolled onto her back and was met with a very unpleasant sight: Bane slowly applauding.

"Very well done, Slayer," He intoned, "You've managed to defeat the greatest martial artists alive today"

"Yea me" Faith breathed as she rose to confront the giant of a man.

"When I break you and bring you before my master, it will be even more satisfying when I tell him of your latest conquest."

"I'm more known for breaking big guys like you…but in a much different way" Faith turned on her 'charms' as she spoke. To her horror, they didn't seem to have a noticeable effect on the giant. "…And by the way, have you ever met a guy names 'El Santo'?" She joked—knowing right then that there was no way out of this situation without violence she was no longer physically able to deliver. 

"I have yet to have the pleasure." With that, Bane turned a dial on his wrist and his muscles expanded to enormous proportions. As Faith marveled at the sight of Bane gaining strength and size, he slammed his fist into the Slayer's slight form and sent her careening into a wall on the other side of the street. 

"Gee, you got no problem beatin' on a girl who's at the end of her rope, do ya?" Faith coughed as blood spattered down her lips and onto her chin and neck.

"I will break you, Slayer, just as I broke the Batman!" Bane yelled. "The Great Fu Manchu will have himself a Slayer thanks to my efforts!"

"At least you're not here to kill me…It's a welcome change of pace" Faith coughed again as she stood up. When Bane went to punch her again, she ducked under it and delivered an uppercut that went up just behind his rib cage…at least, that was Faith's intent. Her fist struck Bane as he staggered back, hardly damaged by the blow. 

Faith knew she was in deep. Her vision was blurry, her ears were ringing and she probably had a concussion.  

That is when a sound similar to the roars of big cats seemed to descend upon the street….

*


	3. Part 3: Elitism

(Sorry for the long delay and false update—noticed a lot of errors last time, went and corrected them)

Title: Trials of Faith: Part 3: Elitism 

Author: Majin Gojira

Category: Action/Adventure/Drama/Crossover

Rating: PG-13

Type of Crossover: WNU Based Crossover AU (don't mean I gotta stick to it, but it's a much easier starting point for the amount and type of crossovers involved, plus it has a good formula for including new crossovers.

For those crossovers, I need to explain the altered histories and dynamics of the various other media brought in: Specifically Gargoyles and Harry Potter.

Gargoyles: Timeline has been altered. After the Original Series ended, a period of stagnation occurred among the gargoyles and has lasted for a while. People treat Gargoyles in a similar vein to the Jersey Devil of the Pine Barrens. Many believe them, many don't, but all the locals profit off it. Oberon and his children have been drastically altered: Half of the creatures claimed to be Oberon's children are not (Anubis is a Gua'old/Ancient; Odin is an Asgard; Anansi is Atlach-Nacha; Banshee is a true spirit) Oberon, Titania, Puck, the Weird Sisters and the like are members of the Q Continuum. New Olympians do not exist. Nokkar exists and the Space Spawn he fights/is here to fight are the Star Spawn of Cthulhu. 

Harry Potter: By the date this series is set in (around 2002/2003), Harry and the gang all graduated and moved on after Voldermort's second/final fall. But that did not stop tragedy from striking Hogwarts when the King of Terror leveled the school in the beginning of 2000.  All HP Wizards have Magical Ability, but can usually only express it through wands. Their magic is generally weaker and less varied in many aspects to the other forms of magic in the WNU. Thus, in order to protect them from the darker magic of the world, they cloistered themselves off and slowly, strangely, they began to think of themselves as better than the 'muggles' who could not work their brand of magic, which was more 'light', but much more complicated to work. For all conflicting creature definitions, consider WNU primary creatures as the true forms and all others as exaggerations and misinterpretations placed in by the authors of the works. They are not nearly as in control and world spanning as they want 'muggles' to believe through the propaganda of J.K. Rowling. Yes, propaganda. Other series have loads of propaganda in them; it just takes a discerning eye to notice it. Basically, think about what Anne Rice has done for Vampires, J.K. Rowling has done for Wizards.)

Summary:  Friends and Enemies anew come to Faith's attention…

Legal: Same as Before

Distribution: Same as Before

***

Six Years Ago…

"Faith, as the Slayer, you're going to have to recognize some of the more common Extra-planar, Extra-dimensional, and non-human species local to the area," Dr. Egon Spengler said in his classic laconic tone, "In order to make our and your life a little easier"

"I'm all for the easy life" Faith smirked, "As long as you don't insult my intelligence with this shit"

"Every time you speak is an affront to mine." Egon intoned. 

"Hey!"

"To begin with, let us look at the species known as "Gargoyles". Spawn of the dragon 'Gargoullie', it is said that those who looked into the dragons eyes were transformed into them. Though there is no support to lend credence to this myth, Gargoyles and "Dragons" are linked genetically. They are sentient and extremely territorial, basing their entire society on protecting an area and those who reside in it…."

As Egon droned on, Faith began to dose off…

***

Faith now wished she had paid more attention to Egon's lesson on Gargoyles—for two were standing between her and Bane. 

One was a female with lavender skin and dark hair. The other was a portly light blue/green male. The Venom-laden Bane dwarfed both gargoyles—even with their impressive wingspans.

Faith's vision was blurry, her ears were ringing, the sound of her own heart slammed against her eardrums like the bellows of a hellish ironsmith. She couldn't hear much of anything as she stood on quivering legs. 

  
"Angela, get her out of here, NOW" the light blue/green male ordered, unknown to Faith, he was called 'Broadway'. 

Angela, the lavender female, moved swiftly towards Faith. 

Bane cursed in anger "NO! You will not rob me of my prize!" as he gave chase to Angela—allowing Broadway to tackle Bane to the ground. 

Broadway roared in exertion as he grappled with Bane. To his horror, he soon found that his feet were no longer touching the ground. Bane lifted Broadway over his head and threw the heavyset Gargoyle into an adjacent brick wall. This fazed him slightly, but did not have a lasting effect. 

Angela was having even less luck with her charge. Faith was in no condition to think rationally. She was exhausted, beaten, strained and generally stressed. Her mind was in its most primitive of thought processes: fight or flight—currently, flight seemed to be the best option, but fighting off a charging figure was not completely removed from the list. 

Angela was taken off guard as Faith nailed her jaw with a spin kick, sending the female gargoyle spinning off her feet and onto the concrete. Faith landed with very little grace and a grunt of pain before limping away as fast as her broken and battered body could carry her. 

The lavender gargoyle did not let that faze her for long, however. She was back on her feet and quickly bounded after Faith on all fours.  With feline grace she leapt onto a car, and then onto a lamppost. From there she opened her wings and glided down and snatched Faith in her talons.  

"Got ya!" Angela exclaimed as she and Faith rose into the air. 

Faith, for her part, began to struggle in the Gargoyle's grasp. 

"PUT ME THE HELL DOWN!" Faith yelled as she wriggled and thrashed about like a salmon in the claws of an eagle. 

"You need to get to a hospital, I'm taking you there." Angela informed her passenger.

With the word 'Hospital', Faith began to experience a new kind of fear. Fear of being discovered: by the cops, by the Watchers, by Angel…by Buffy.

Faith brough her legs up and wrapped them around Angela's head, then flipped her over and brought the Gargoyle to the hard streets below. Angela landed on her back and Faith bounced off the Gargoyle's body like a tightly wound spring—landing unceremoniously on her side. Both were rather slow to rise, Angela getting to her feet long before Faith had made it to her knees—but their delay in escape did not matter, they had put enough distance between themselves and Bane for him to lose track of where they went. That and Broadway was keeping his hands full while they escaped. 

`

Angela limped over to the broken and bleeding form that the Slayer had become, who, for her part, looked up at the slender Lavender form and smirked.

 "I don't do hospitals", Faith spat. 

"I'm not just going to leave you here to die!" Angela growled. 

Faith looked up at the determined form before her. She realized that Angela would not let her alone to let the Slayer healing take over. Faith would have to knock her out in order to escape the helping claws of the gargoyle. Something her body was physically incapable of doing right now. With a sigh of defeat Faith rose shakily on bruised legs and waved her hands, letting Angela know that she wouldn't struggle anymore.

"Is there some place you want me to take you?" Angela asked, her demeanor much calmer.

Faith was about to answer, but suddenly felt dizzy. Her vision blurred a bit and her legs felt like uncooked bacon strips. She collapsed in Angela's arms and passed out. 

*

Gotham City Museum 

Gwen Raiden was good at what she did and she knew it. Few thieves could match the quality of her work. This job would be no different from a hundred jobs she'd pulled before. She liked her work. It paid well and the excitement and challenge of each new job was always welcomed

As she repelled down to the museum floor, she heard something—something not very pleasant: the sound of webbing. 

"Fancy meeting you here" Spider-girl asked as she repelled down next to Gwen.

"What? Run out of electricity puns in our first meeting?" Gwen snarled.

"Well, I thought…why waste 'em? Save 'em for someone who has a sense of humor." Spider-girl answered. 

Gwen did not respond; she simply clanged the metal bracers on her forearms together—activating the weapons. The metal bracers were similar to her ancestor's gloves when he was known as "The Shocker". They were built to amplify and project her electrical production into solid beams. Based on the basic design of her forbearer, and improved upon with many modern modifications.

Gwen reached forward and fired a twin blast at Spider-girl, who only barely dodged the bolts. Gwen flipped down to the Museum floor and began to try and electrocute the blue and red-clad hero. Gwen cursed inwardly at having to face Spider-girl again in New York. According to the plan, she was now relegated to 'distraction for the superhero'—a position she loathed. 

Two floors below them, the other thieves hired by the Kingpin were continuing with the heist. 

"It was certainly brilliant of them to do this—putting a glass fake on display and keeping the real "Heart of the Dragon" in a safe in the sub-basement; pretty smart…but _not_ smart enough." Arisen Lupin III, the infamous Gentleman Thief, chuckled as he and his crew made their way to the safe, walking safely through after Gwen disabled the electronic surveillance a few minutes before she began her descent through the roof. Lupin was a tall man with a long face and brown hair. He wore a red coat, yellow tie, white shirt and brown pants—all very dressy attire, as the master thief liked it. "Look at that! I didn't think they made this model of safe anymore! This'll be a cake walk." Lupin smiled confidently as they approached the safe. 

"Sometimes, I think you just use your ego to crack the safes, Lupin." Gigen commented as the master thief went to work. Gigen was much more down to earth, a Japanese man with a well developed beard. He wore a blue suit and hat that seemed to conceal his face very well. 

"We must hurry. Gwen will not be able to hold Spider-girl off forever." Goemon added. Goemon was more traditional; he looked as if he was a samurai. And for the modern world, he technically was. 

"What? Afraid we can't handle teenaged girl in spandex?" Lupin teased before he got to work with cracking the safe. "Hmm…teenaged girl in spandex…"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Lupin" Gigen said as he watched for any approaching dangers with his trusty Magnum revolver drawn and at the ready.

"There was a very good reason we avoided New York for much of our lives. Spider-girl is one of them. We can probably handle Spider-girl, or even Batman. But if Superman shows up…"

"Relax and let me work my magic..." Lupin assured.

*

Angela flew back to the castle on uneasy wings. Many thoughts tumbled through her head. Was leaving Broadway with Bane the right thing to do? Should the girl in her arms be taken to a hospital despite her pleases not to be?  Why was she being attacked by Bane? Why was she so strong? 

She soon reached the Erye building and glided toward the castle on top of it. Thankfully, Owen was still at the castle, Alex having fallen asleep many hours earlier. 

"Owen!" Angela shouted as she landed next to him.

Owen, a tall, well dressed, broad shouldered blond man, went up to the gargoyle with the same calm, focused demeanor he handled everything else. "Is there a good reason why you have brought this woman here and not to the paramedics?"

"She refused to—and provided too much of a struggle to not ignore her request. I did not know where else to take her." Angela answered.

Owen noticed that when Angela mentioned the struggle the now sleeping girl put up, she moved her neck to the side and displayed to rather large, ugly bruises around it.

"She did that to you?" Owen asked, his voice not displaying any of the surprise he was feeling.

"Yes, I don't know how though. Could be part of the reason Bane was attacking her—Owen, she needs some medical attention. We can talk about her after she begins to heal. The sun should be up in another hour or two."

*

_Precinct__Building_

Detective Elisa Maza did not like what was happening in her city. Neither did anyone else down at the station. Elisa Maza, despite the aura of negativity she was exuding at the moment, was always an eye catcher. Hair so dark it seemed to be blue contrasting her mocha-olive skin, all accenting her well defined figure. She was dressed in her usual attire while on the job: Read leather jacked, black shirt and jeans. 

"More reports of this 'Slayer' Character." Detective Matt Bluestone told her partner.  He was a little older than Elisa and showing the first signs of graying in his red hair. The tall detective's attire was more fitting of an old detective movie: Tan trench coat and Olive tie on his suit. More authoritarian than Elisa's 'free spirited' nature, he still kept at his conspiracies—because he knew already that there was more to the world than meets the eye. The Slayer was one of those things. "This time at a club in Gotham, it appears that she and two of our more colorful residents saved the club from some unknown creature. Whatever it was exploded and covered the place with…liquefied ham."

"Liquefied…Ham?"  Elisa chuckled, completely unnerved and surprised by the notion.

Matt nodded.

"This town just keeps getting weirder and weirder." Elisa sighed.

"I did a little deep research" Matt began, "it appears the title of 'Slayer' isn't all that new. Turns out there have been reports of women known as "The Slayer" going back sporadically since there've been records kept. Most of the write-ups are for violent incidents and breaking and entering. Usually, several months or years later, they turn up dead, either torn up, neck snapped or—get this, drained of their blood.  Nothing quite like what we're dealing with here. They've never tangled with normal street punks or vigilantes."

"Any matches on the fingerprints we found?"

"One, but no one can access the file—someone's got it locked up tighter than Fort Knox—" Elisa smiled. 

"Looks like Lex will get to flex his muscles online again…"

"Probably"

"Anyway, her pattern doesn't make much sense. First she beats up a small time gang; then, later, several muggers. Next she's spotted fighting the Batman on two separate occasions. Next day, she's spotted taking on some of the Scorpions with Ben Grimm in his neighborhood.  Later that same night: she, Spider-girl and Batgirl all show up at a club to deal with…some big animal. We think it was a pig, because the place just smells like, and is covered in: ham."

"Ham?"

"Ham. How a wild boar got in the club is still a big question, we need to find out what's going on… Wait, what was the locked file called?" Matt asked.

"It was labeled 'Jamie Lloyd'." Elisa Answered.

*

"Got it!" Lupin shouted as the safe slowly opened. "Told you, there isn't a safe in the world I can't crack!"

He looked inside, and there, sitting on a pedestal, glowing in an unnatural hue, was the ruby known as the 'Heart of the Dragon'. 

He reached inside and snatched the mystical gem and placed it in his favorite hiding place—under his collar. 

"Signal the lightning rod! We're outa here!" Lupin shouted as he and his accomplices began to run towards their exits. Lupin depressed one of his cufflinks and slid out the way he entered.

The trigger signaled an audio signal device in Gwen's gloves. The device beeped three times. 

"Well, it's been fun, but I gotta run" Gwen smiled.

"And how do you expect to do escape this time?" Spider girl asked as she tried again to web-up Gwen, who deftly avoided the adhesive.

"Little something I've been working on recently."  Gwen smiled and placed her hands on the ground. She had studied the structure very carefully and knew where to place her hands in order for the maximum effective radius for the trick she was about to pull. "I call it a Bug Zapper"

With that, she sent incredibly large electrical charge through all of the metal components of the museum's structure—which happened to be quite a lot. 

Spider-girl attempted to leap away from the large electrical discharge, just managing to get outside as a blinding flash shone from the building. When the flash subsided, Gwen was gone—much to Spider-Girl's frustration. 

*

Faith awoke in a strange environment—a stone structure, with modern medical equipment around her and hooked into her. Something she really didn't like. As she rose, she saw a well built, blond man who appeared to be as ridged as wood. He was reading _The Wall Street Journal_, as she rose; he turned to her with a start. She could sense something unnatural around him, but could not quite place it as of her just waking up. 

"This is rather surprising." Owen said as Faith turned to look at him, in almost equal confusion. Owen was surprised at how quickly the girl had recovered. 

"I'm full of those." Faith sneered as she turned to get up out of the bed.

"You shouldn't—"

"—be able to move? Get up so soon? Be all healed up? Take your pick, I'm not gonna answer how. It just happens." Faith said as she pulled the various wires and tubes from her body, thankful that her cloths from the night before remained intact next to the bed—cleaned and pressed even. 

"Hey, thanks for cleaning these things—and the medical care I kinda didn't really need. Nice thought though"

"No problem at all, madam" Owen responded.

"Mind telling me where I am?"

"Not at all, the Eyrie building, headquarters of Xanatos Enterprises" 

'From one billionaire's grasp into another' Faith thought, but did not mention her concerns aloud, though they were partially evident on her face. 

In the Pucks mind, he knew what who was standing before him: the Slayer. Even he respected the mantel the girl carried. He did not wish to reveal his knowledge of her identity any time before the time he would deem appropriate, Xanatos, on the other hand…

"I guess that you wish to see your benefactors, or are you simply planning on leaving us immediately after your miraculous recovery?" Owen asked. 

Faith gave him a blank stare. "…Let's… do that thing you said" Faith said, as she tied her shoes. "What time is it anyway?"

"Just after sunset, your benefactors are just waking up."  
  


"Right, they turn to stone during the day." Off Owen's look, she added "I worked with the Ghostbusters for several months; they had a file on those guys."

"Interesting" Owen noted. 

With that, the left the small recovery room and entered the halls of the castle. As Faith and Owen traveled towards up one of the towers, Faith's sharp ears picked up on the noise of shuffling claws—assuming them to be the Gargoyles, she heard one say "Let us see how our 'guest' is doing". It was a deep, gravely voice which was clearly not pleased by the situation the owner found it in. It was a voice that put Faith a little on edge. 

As they came into her line of sight she spoke up: "I'm doin' rather well, actually, haven't slept that well in long while."

"What the-?" 

"How?" 

"It's not possible, not with all the wounds you had!" 

Faith looked over the troop of Gargoyles before her. The most prominent of them was the 'big one': Lavender in color, square topped head, black hair, and HUGE. Nearest to him was the female purple one from the night before, 'Angela' if she heard right—amidst all the ringing in her own head. The fat one was with her. Next to them was a red gargoyle with a prominent beak, twin horns atop his skull and white hair. In front of the beaked one was a small, slime-green gargoyle with webbings between his limbs—no wings, and a rounded head. To the big ones other side was a grizzled old gargoyle with twin like skull ridges that reminded Faith of that weirdo Trekkie whom she saved—unknown to her, he was dressed as a Klingon. The old gargoyle also had white hair and a small sword at his side. The older one wore the most clothing next to the female; the old warrior had leather armor on him. Then, there was the Gargoyle-beast. A canine creature with a ridged back, webbed ears and a slightly pug face. Faith could tell that these creatures could detain her against her will if they wanted to—not easily, but they could. That fact innerved the Slayer. 

"So, do I have to answer your questions, or can I just bolt? I'm kinda hungry--"

"That's alright, I was about to make breakfast anyway, you can stay and eat" the tubby one announced.

"And offer us an explanation" the beaked one followed up. 

"Hey, I'm not one to turn down free food, I'm wicked hungry."

*

"Do you have the item that I requested?"

"Of course, I always deliver what is requested of me." Kingpin answered.

"Excellent…at last, the Heart of the Dragon…"

"Now, as for the fee for my services..."

"Oh? Yes, here's your gold." The man said as he placed a sizable bag on the Kingpin's desk.

"Thank you Mr. Malfoy, I hope we can do business again"

*

Elisa Maza was greeted with an unusual sight as she entered the main hall of castle. Her friends had a guest. A girl in her early 20s, dark hair, pale complexion, dressed as if she was heading to a club. She was seated at the long table seated with the Gargoyles—apparently in an eating contest with Broadway—or at least eating as much as he usually did. 

"I hope I'm not interpreting anything…" Elisa said as she approached the table. 

Goliath, the large purple Gargoyle, as Faith was told, immediately rose to great the visitor. Faith could see the attraction between the two. Faith's mind immediately went to a dirty place, imaging what could be done with a Gargoyles tail…

"Elisa, this is Faith. Faith this is Elisa Maza." Goliath introduced.

"She's a Vampire Slayer!" Lexington, the smallest gargoyle blurted out.

'So much for that secret identity thing' Faith thought as she slurped up spaghetti, fearing it her last bite given Elisa's look. Faith sighed and filled in a little. "MTV version: Vampire Slayer. A.K.A. 'the Slayer', Mystical Warrior, one girl chosen to fight the forces of darkness, given the strength and skill and stop me when I'm boring you."

"No…Go on" Elisa answered, her curiosity peeked. 

"Basically I got superpowers and a calling to use them all in one convenient, hot little package."

"Does that include beating up street thugs?"

"Only when they get rowdy." Faith said before swallowing another mouthful. "Something tells me you know more than that Ms-"

"Detective"

"…Well, shit." Faith cursed, placing her utensils down and leaning back in her chair, "So, what do you think you know, Sherlock? Cuz you wouldn't be given me that look if you didn't think you knew something."

All of the attention in the room was now focused on the two women as they continued their dialogue. 

"About three nights ago reports began trickling in from Gorham about a new vigilante running around. After beating up a few random muggers and a minor gang, she was seen fighting the Batman."

Elisa paused, allowing Faith to intercede.

"Some asshole Politician told me that the guy wasn't human. And like an idiot I believed him."

"Any names?"

"Lex Luthor—kind of out of your league, I'd say. Plus I can't really do jack to him since he's holding all the cards against me."

"All of the cards?" Goliath inquired.

With a deep sigh, Faith said "I'm an ex-con."

A stunned silence filled the room before Elisa continued. "Last night, word has it she took down a bunch of Scorpions with the help of… 'A big stone man'"

"Ben Grimm, You know, 'the Thing'…of the Four?" 

"…No" Brooklyn said after a pause.

"You're kidding, right?" Lexington asked, "The 'Fantastic' Four was a group of humans all with special powers and abilities who traveled around the world helping people. They did it during the 60's and 70's, I think. I wondered what happened to them…"

"Anyway, next we here that she's scene fighting--"

"A Ham Demon" Faith Interrupted.

"…You're kidding." 

"Slayers fight demons, lass. It's what they do." Hudson answered.

"Even if they are made of ham" Faith added.

"Anyway, she fought this…Ham Demon, along with Batgirl and Spider-Girl. Care to fill anything else in?" Elisa finished

"After the Ham demon, I got in a fight with some Asian chick—Lady Diva or something"

"Shiva?!" Angela exclaimed, "You fought Lady Shiva"

"Yeah, that was it, real nut-job. Wanted to fight to the death or some crazy stunt…Anyway, after knocking her out, that big bruiser Bane blindsides me and really works a number on me. And that's when you two" She motioned to Broadway and Angela "Swooped in."

"I brought her here because she refused to go to a hospital, and the sun would soon rise" Angela explained. 

"It was the whole ex-con thing. That and last time I was in a hospital, I was in a coma for 8 months. Not a fun experience."

"I know" Elisa added. "So 'Faith', what are you going to do now?"

"Now, I'm going to pig out as much as I can." She said, turning to Broadway "You're one helluva cook"

The round gargoyle blushed at this statement, to Angela's secreted annoyance. 

"Then," Faith continued, "I'd thought I'd get out of your hair and go patrol"

"You're welcome to join us on our patrol, it would be nice to have the Slayer with us" Hudson said with a broad smile.

"Sure" Faith accepted, "Always up to try something new. And patrolling with Gargoyles is pretty new to me" She then hurriedly finished off the remaining spaghetti and cleaned off her mouth. "Just say the word and I'm with you."

"Alright," Goliath began, "Tonight--"

"Hold on, before you give assignments I have to borrow Lex for the night" Elisa interrupted. 

"Is it for what I think it is?" Lex's eyes brightened.

"Yep" Elisa smiled.

"Alright!" the webbed gargoyle exclaimed before dashing off to the computer room of the castle. Elisa slowly followed, "I'll catch up with you after patrol." 

"In that case…" Goliath began "Faith will come with me to Central Park, Brooklyn and Hudson will take the south side. Angela and Broadway, you take the lower east side." 

*

"Alright, what do you want me to hack into tonight?" Lexington asked excitedly as he took a seat in front of his extraordinarily powerful and compact computer. Lex enjoyed using his computer skills, for it was something that truly set him apart from the rest of the clan. Given the inherent general communist leanings of most clans, finding this expression of individuality and using it was something he cherished dearly. 

"We found some fingerprints tonight, but the file for the perp is locked tight."

"Give me a second…I'm in. What's the file labeled?"

"Jamie Lloyd"

Lexington typed into the computer at a blistering pace. "There…you're right, this baby is locked up tight, but...not tight…enough…Bingo!"

Lexington had worked his magic well and the file lay before them like an open book. As he looked at the file, the profile picture was frighteningly familiar to him.

"Hey, this is-"

"I know"

"Jamie Lloyd a.k.a. Jamie Strode a.k.a. Elektra Nachios a.k.a. Faith a.k.a. Faith Wilkins a.k.a. Gina Lloyd

Date of Birth: April. 29. 1980

Parents; Mother: Laurie Strode/Laurie Meyers a.k.a. Keri Tate. Father: James Lloyd. 

Other known relatives: Michael Meyers (Uncle) (deceased-1998?). John Strode/Tate (Brother). Angelo LaMarca (son)"

"That explains the name changes."

"How so?"

"Michael Meyers is…was…a serial killer. One of the worst psychos the world has ever known"

"Wow, look at this—in 1988 and 1989 Meyers went after her. Thankfully he was stopped by Dr. Samuel Loomis—hey, didn't he handle the Norman Bates case?"

"No, but he did write the book on it"

"After his second appearance by Michael Meyers and someone else, the file doesn't list the name, she runs off to New York for a few years. Wow, look all this…theft, breaking and entering, drug possession…in 1996 she gives birth to a son, fathered by Joseph LaMarca."

"Joseph LaMarca—I know that kid…doing time for murder and drug possession. His Father was my first partner."

"Small World, eh? Anyway," Lex continued, "in 1998, something happens. She straightens up for a while during the summer and works for the Ghostbusters…records are spotty in August and September, but next she shows up in California and then…Wow…wait…Huh? What the—"

"I think the others deserve to see this file. Looks like "Faith" still has a lot of explaining to do…"

*

"I don't get it Lupin? Why are we following that gem around?"  Gigen asked as Lupin followed the gem's carrier intently through a pair of binoculars. 

"You may not know this, but the Heart of the Dragon is a mystical artifact."  Lupin began to explain. "Said to possess restorative abilities for dark creatures"

"So whoever Kingpin sold the gem to is not going to be using it for positive means" Goemon finished for Lupin.

"And judging by the buyer's attire, I'd say he's a wizard" 

"A wizard? You're kidding!" Gigen exclaimed.

"No, I'm serious. I have a second cousin, once removed on my father's side, who was a Wizard" Lupin answered. "AHA! He's entering Central Park"

A voice startled the intrepid trio as Gwen Raiden arrived "I hope I'm not to late" She smiled.

"Nope, you're just in time." Lupin said as he looked through the binoculars. He watched the man enter the crypt with impunity, making sure to note the method and position in which he did it. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something very interesting.

"Hello!" Lupin exclaimed, "There's a Gargoyle heading in with some girl in his arms!"

"That'll complicate things" Gwen growled. 

"But in a good way, my dear." Lupin smiled. 

"Don't call me 'dear' ever again, Lupin" 

*


	4. Part 4: The Madness of Machines and Men

Title: The Trials of Faith Part 4: The Madness of Machines and Men

Author: Majin Gojira

Category: Crossover/Action/Drama

Rating: PG-13 (So, do you 12 year olds who read this have a parent or guardian with you? No, then go away! SHOO! Scat! SCRAM!)

Type of Crossover: Wold Newton Universe based Crossover. No haughty large explanations…well, a minor Stargate SG-1 change…the "Ancients" are…well, the WNU explanation is that they were time travelers of us from the future, they created the multiverse, pocket dimensions like Hogwarts and Oz, and it is all very odd and weird. But, in a strange way, makes sense. Though that proto-ancient that they found in Antarctica has been replaced by an Elder Thing, much hilarity (and madness) ensued.

Author's note: I can't believe I got as far as I did without saying "Goa'uld".

Second Author's note: When looking for cheap ways to improve your writing—quote Lovecraft!

Summary: Action sequences, revelations and more tidbits of Faith's past are revealed.

Legal Stuff: Repeat ad Nauseum

Distribution: Really? Ok, just ask (hey, it happened once…)

Ships:

"Daddy, why do people write purely shipper stories with no care for how out of character, un-canonical, or utterly moronic the ship is?"

"Because they touch themselves at night"

"I don't claim to know who runs this operation, but they must have been ill upon choosing you. Seems you were quite sick to begin with, then, having all this muck go through you set off some new amusement…seeming to become almost an extension of what you were charged to contain. Messy, but **I **thought it was funny." – Senor Diablo.

_Johnny the Homicidal Maniac #6_

"So, Central Park. Usually one or two vampires here, least it was when Deacon Frost was around" Faith said as she and Goliath landed.

"In all our time here, we have not encountered a vampire" Goliath began, "Hopefully we can learn from each other."

"I'm all for learnin'" Faith smiled.

"Then have I a proposition for you!" an audacious voice quickly grabbed their attention. Both spun around and their eyes locked on a motley quartet. A Frenchman with a red suit, khaki pants, blue shirt and an orange tie, stood at the forefront. At his flanks stood a Japanese man in a traditional karate gi (whom Faith would come to learn was Goemon); a second Japanese man in a blue suit with matching pants, a white shirt, black tie, a hat that concealed most of his facial features aside from his prominent, curved beard(whom Faith would learn was Gigen); and an American woman in a combination of revealing red and black leather pants and shirt, with black gloves encased in scientific metal bracers (whom Faith already knew, Gwen Raiden).

Goliath recognized the leader almost immediately: "LUPIN!"

"Nice to see you remembered me" Lupin smiled.

"Well, I don't even know who the hell you are, so someone care to fill me in?" Faith asked.

"I am Arsene Lupin the Third! The world's greatest thief! Surely you've heard of me" Said Lupin with a grin.

"Nope, can't say I have" Faith answered.

"You're joking…" Lupin said, mildly depressed. "You mean…you've never heard of any of my great heists? The Dragon of Doom? The Castle of Cagliostro? The Twilight Diamond?"

"Nope, sorry."

Lupin let out a grand sigh.

"Can't be famous everywhere you go, Lupin" Gigen consoled.

"Oh, but it would be nice if all the pretty girls knew who I was…" Lupin answered.

"I'm waiting for a reason, Lupin" Goliath growled.

"I've got two, big boy." Lupin recovered from the blow to his ego and reclaimed his bravado. "My girl Gwen here can take both you and your new friend out rather quickly"

Gwen gave Lupin a look of sheer contempt, that went unnoticed by him, but not to Faith.

"And secondly, I have very important information on a group of criminals far worse than I am…"

Faith was at a loss for how she and Goliath had been talked into going with Lupin and his crew. The plan was sound, but Faith and Goliath were adamant about one change in the initial plan – they would not kill any of their human adversaries. Gwen, it seemed, agreed with them more hole-heartedly than Lupin. He begrudgingly agreed to their terms and altered his plan accordingly.

They stole themselves into the cavernous crypt. How, Faith was not sure, as Lupin and Gwen had lead them to a set of stones, depressed a hidden switch, and they were all surrounded by a series of rings which arose from the ground. After a blinding flash of light, they found themselves in the temple. It was covered in ornate and extravagant Egyptian artwork and styling—it was like a hidden Egyptian temple that seemed to draw a little too much from the bio-pic _Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_. The group hid in the corners and ease-dropped on a group of five cloaked wizards as they chanted and burned herbs around the fist-sized ruby known as 'The Heart of the Dragon'.

A set of five rings tapered down in front of them the ceiling and in a flash of light, seven men appeared. Six of them were armored warriors with oddly shaped staffs and even stranger symbols tattooed on their foreheads which resembled a three headed dragon—on two of which, the symbol was golden and reminiscent of the King of Terror. The seventh man appeared to be dressed as an Egyptian pharaoh with many additional parts that Faith could not easily identify. But all with a black motif that disturbed all those present. It was his skin that was darker than his clothing, however. Not to say that he was of African decent—his skin was really _black_; carbon black, a darkness that seemed to suck the scant light from the room like a black hole. Whatever he was, he certainly was not human.

"Lord Nephren-Ka," A blond haired wizard spoke, "it is good to see you."

The Black Pharaoh, Nephren-Ka, shocked the spies further when his eyes shone brightly for an instant. His voice was deep, abysmal and awe-inspiring; sending shivers down Faith's spine when it reached her ears.

"Malfoy" boomed Nephren-Ka, "Do you have what your Lord asked you to retrieve?"

"Yes, Lord Nephren-Ka" Draco Malfoy answered, "We have retrieved the Dragon's Heart." With an ornate gesture, Draco Malfoy presented the Dragon's Heart on a small velvet pillow before the Black Pharaoh.

"Lord Nyarlathotep will be pleased with your work, wizard." Nephren-Ka smiled as his claw-like, jewel encrusted fingers enveloped the jewel. Nephren-Ka knew full and well that the Wizard, in handing him the jewel, had damned himself and the entire planet—for with it, the King of Terror could be revived to full health before the petty creatures currently laboring over his still-living body had a chance to implement their own futile plans. Malfoy merely thought of it as a powerful magical item—but it was the missing heart of King Ghidorah, the beast which had leveled Hogwarts and a good deal of the wizarding world several years before. He was unknowingly serving the Talons of the King of Terror!

In the dark corner, Lupin smiled, "Time for phase two...Hold on a second there, Pharaoh!"

"Who dares disturb the sanctity of this palace?" Nephren-Ka thundered as his eyes once again flashed in a brilliance of white light.

Draco Malfoy recognized who it was and spoke his name without hesitation "Lupin!"

"The one and only Lupin the Third… to be precise," Lupin bowed dramatically, "and I'm here to tell you that the jewel you have there is a phony!"

"What?" Draco and Nephren-ka asked in unison.

"A counterfeit, a fake, a forgery, a copy, a sham, a-"

"I know what the word means, human!" Nephren-ka growled.

"But you obviously don't know how to spot one, and as a master thief – I always know what to steal and what not to and I wouldn't look at that glass bead twice."

"You lie! The Kingpin assured me he had the best he had on the case for the amount I paid for it!" Draco fumed.

"And you didn't think that the Kingpin wouldn't double-cross you? Man! I knew wizards were naive about the real world, but you! You take the cake!" Lupin laughed as Draco grew crimson with rage.

"ENOUGH!" Nephren-ka yelled. "Is what you say true, is this a fraud?"

"I'm a master thief, I can spot a forgery a mile away, and that's such a poor forgery that it makes me sick just to look at it" Lupin answered, then reached into his pocket and produced something that surprised all those watching. "Now this is the real deal."

"The Heart of the Dragon! Give it to me." Said Nephren-ka.

"Of course, your kingliness…for a price…"

Nephren-Ka composed himself and then began to deal with the shrewd thief. The talks were tense as Lupin managed to seemingly convince the entity not to just kill him and take the gem. In the end, he managed to allow himself safe passage out of the crypt and several gold bars (how the self-proclaimed god managed to gain them he did not know nor care). He'd had years of practice making deals on the fly with megalomaniacs.

In the shadows, Gwen smiled. 'So that's why he was following the jewel…'

"Hold on a moment." Draco interrupted "You did set this whole thing up, didn't you?"

Lupin did not respond as he looked over his impressive, golden prize.

"You're the Kingpin's "top man" that he sent and you double-crossed him and are getting a double-payment for doing a single job" Draco theorized.

"Give the boy a cigar!" Lupin taunted.

"Everything is in order, thief" Nephren-ka announced. "Your payment is here. Now give me the Heart of the Dragon"

Lupin casually tossed the gem over to the false god, who caught with equal ease.

"Jaffa! Kree!" Nephren-ka commanded and the Jaffa aimed their staff weapons at the red-clad bandit.

"Oh, Great…" Lupin stressed.

"Our deal is done, as are all matters concerning it" Nephren-ka smirked, "No mortal bargains as an equal to a GOD…What is the matter Lupin, you didn't expect me to double cross you?"

"Actually, I counted on it" Lupin said as he depressed a switch on one of his cufflinks. The gem in the Faux-Pharaoh's hands exploded, creating a dense plume of suffocating black smoke.

"Kill him!" Nephren-ka commanded.

The sounds of combat echoed through the foggy room. But not only the sounds of staff weapons, spells and guns; but the sounds of slashing blades, claws and something monstrous growling in the dark became more and more dominant as the unseen battle raged. When Nephren-ka's eyes were finally able to penetrate the black smoke, he could see the forces that had materialized from the smoke had defeated both the wizards and his Jaffa guards. Many simply unconscious, only a few were grievously injured.

To the group's horror, Nephren-ka showed none of the fear they expected him to—his face was full of confidence and contempt.

"You honestly think you've won." The Black Pharaoh mocked. "The King of Terror shall rise again! Such is the will of Nyarlathotep!"

Jigen and Lupin both opened fire, only to see their bullets fizzle out on an energy shield that erected itself around the Black Pharaoh.

"Well that was unexpected." Jigen reflected.

Gwen instinctively clanged her forearms together to activate her power-gloves. A blast of electrical energy crackled toward Nephren-ka. She watched in horror as her blast was deflected harmlessly by the Goa'uld's shield.

"Maybe we should try a more direct approach" Faith said as before sprinting toward the Pharaoh. Goliath and Goemon soon followed, but all three were thrown back with a wave of Nephren-Ka's hand. The blast of unseen energy rippled in front of Faith and hit her with the force of a sledge hammer, sending her flying into the group. Goliath and Goemon had been on the edge of the blast and were still knocked away by the invisible blast.

"You fools dare to challenge the will of the Great Old Ones!" Nephren-Ka mocked, and depressed a switch on his ornate glove.

"You will all suffer for this outrage!" he called out before he was surrounded by rings which levitated down from the ceiling. In a flash of brilliant light he disappeared and the rings returned to the ceiling.

As the unlikely team lay on the ground, Lupin managed to speak first:

"I believe the phrase 'take the money and run' would apply to our current situation."

"Except you aren't leaving" Goliath said as he rose menacingly.

"Oh, great" Gigen groaned

"Out to turn the lot of us in, eh?" Lupin smiled.

'Goliath certainly is a hard-ass when it comes to the law…' Faith thought as she untangled herself from the pile with an audible groan of both annoyance and pain.

"I have a little problem with that" Gwen said before raising her arms and unleashing a powerful twin-blast of lightning which struck the two heroes dead in the chest. Goliath and Faith flew through the air and crashed unceremoniously against a far wall.

Before passing out, Faith heard Gwen taunt: "What exactly do super-heroes have shoved up their ass that makes them this uptight?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, I bet it's pretty big" Lupin answered.

With that, Faith's world turned black.

Faith and Goliath eventually returned to Castle Wyvern, when they had awakened, they did not have time to continue the patrol before the sun would rise. It was a bitter awakening, for not only were Lupin and his gang long gone, so were the cultists. As Goliath landed with Faith in his large arms, the greetings and welcomes of the clan were intentionally cut short as the sun was only minutes from rising. Faith felt something odd about the way some of the questions were directed, it seemed like the other gargoyles knew something about her that they did not before and did not like. But before she could question them, the sun rose and silenced them for the rest of the day.

But there was also Elisa Maza.

"What did you tell them, detective?" Faith asked, keeping her back towards Elisa for the moment.

"A lot of the things that you neglected to mention. Like what you were in for – and other little details."

Faith turned quickly towards Elisa with anger in her step, "So I didn't explain my entire life story to you when I first met you? I barely know you! Why the hell would I tell you my entire frickin' life story when I've only known you for a day?"

"Like how you're not an ex-con yet" Elisa continued undaunted.

"What?" Faith stepped back at this statement.

"According to your file, you're still a convict – not even listed as escaped."

Faith was silenced by this revelation. She wanted to say things. To ask questions. About what exactly it was that Luthor had done to get her out. All she could do was sputter for a moment before slumping on the ground with a huff.

Elisa was unprepared for Faith's reaction. Judging by her show of bravado on the previous night she expected one of two reactions: adamant denial or running off. Elisa wondered about what the missing pieces of this girl's past did to her.

Faith let out a heavy sigh, "Well, he said I'd be cleared after I did his dirty work…" She looked up at the detective, "So what are you going to do with me?"

"I still haven't figured that out yet. Someone put you here for a reason; I intend to find out what that reason is."

With a sigh of relief Faith stood up, "Well then, if you're not going to hold me—I'm gonna crash back at my place for bit—if I still have it—then there are some people I'd like to see before you arrest me."

As Faith turned to leave, Elisa asked her "Is one of them your son?"

Faith stopped dead in her tracks for a half second, the other half second was spent grabbing Elisa by the throat and lifting her over a foot off the ground. Elisa struggled to breath as Faith's one hand wrapped tightly around her throat. Through clenched teeth, Faith answered the detective's question with a vicious threat: "There are five basic torture methods, detective. If you tell ANYONE about my son I will _personally_ introduce you to _every single one of them_!"

She dropped Elisa, who fell to the merciless stone floor of the castle with a noticeable 'thud'. She coughed and gasped as she tried to fill her lungs with air and re-open her esophagus.

Faith stepped back for a moment before rushing to Elisa's side

"Oh my God!" she said in a panic, "I'm sorry! Are-are you okay?"

'Oh God, I almost killed her' Faith thought as she helped the detective to her feet. 'After all I've done to try and control myself…it only took that to nearly ruin it all…'

"I'm ok…" Elisa wheezed. Faith slowly lifted the detective back to her feet. Elisa could tell from Faith's eyes that she was more rattled by what had just happened than she was.

"I-I don't know what happened—"

"You obviously care a lot about your son" Elisa smiled slightly, raising her guard up in a combination of legitimacy and jest.

"Yeah," Faith's voice was hollow and unsure as she spoke, "I guess so"

"Mr. President, the CIALD agents Hippolyta Trevor and Steve Rogers have just arrived in New York City"

"Excellent. Inform Dr. Trask that he may begin field testing his latest weapon."

"Yes sir"

When Faith finally returned to her room, or rather, what remained of it after her tussle with Batman, she didn't even bother to change her clothes. She simply collapsed on the bed and fell right to sleep. It had been a long night and she needed the rest: real sleep as opposed to unconsciousness she had been experiencing with alarming frequency as of late.

As she dreamt, she was first assaulted in the mind with many horrible images: of a terrible receding city of cyclopean towers and great monoliths of granite. The wind was aroused with grand, horrible piping. Names and images flashed before her in a madding mix that even the most advanced human minds on earth could not hope to comprehend: "The Black Pit", "Shoggoth", "Elder Thing", "the King of Terror", "the Space Demon", "The windowless solids with five dimensions", "the nameless cylinder", "The Lord of Spiders", "Yog-Sothoth", "the primal white jelly", "the color out of space", "The original, eternal and undying", "Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn!", "the Plateau of Leng", "The Stone Fiend of Vengance, Daimajin", "The Crimson Destroyer"…

Within the madding words and images, a clear voice echoed through her mind:

"Jamie Lloyd" said the voice, "You dare to include yourself in the affairs of the Great Old Ones, of whom it is unlawful for men to see, lest they bring horror and madness to your worthless life, even if you are a child of the New Gods. Watchers have warned you of these things, and yet you defy them. These are the gods whom have stayed behind in the deep and left for the void. It is best for you to let these gods lay, lest they rise again in terror and blasphemy. But you shall not forget them! No, you have placed yourself in their way. So they shall haunt you until your final death! Forget not this single warning, Jamie Lloyd, lest horrors unthinkable suck you into the gulf of shrieking and ululant madness. Remember the Other Gods, for they are great and mindless and terrible, and lurk in the outer void. They are good gods to avoid. Pray you may never meet me in one of my thousand forms. Farwell Jamie Llyod, and beware _FOR I AM NYARLETHOTEP! THE CRAWLING CHAOS!_"

Faith's scream shot through the now thick, damp air like a bullet as she bolted up, escaping from her sanity-shattering nightmare into the waking world…that the Old Ones left be through their shear mindlessness. With these thoughts on her mind, she tried to get some sleep.

When Faith again awoke it was approaching the evening and she was hardly rested. The images she saw in her dreams would haunt her for the rest of her life. She, quite frankly, didn't care what they were as long as she never saw or heard of them ever again.

She changed her clothes rather quickly into simple black-leather pants, a tight red shirt and leather jacket.

In an effort to remove her mind as far from the nightmarish images of her dreams, she flaunted herself in front of the mirror for quite a while.

"I don't ask to be this hot, it's just a gift" she said to inflate her own ego and forget the horrors of her dream.

This might be her last day of freedom; she decided to look good for it. She grabbed her bag and headed back towards Castle Wyvern.

In the early hours of the morning, central park became a haven of military vehicles. A Goa'uld incursion on earth was a momentous event for those who knew what the above was. Daniel Jackson was one of those people. He now found himself in a deep, underground chamber below central park full of Goa'uld writings. He had been sent to decipher them and did not like what he was seeing.

"So, we've got 5 incapacitated Jaffa with golden dragons on their heads, the appearances of a firefight of some sort…please tell me you've found something interesting in those hieroglyphs," Colonel Jack O'Neill said, his usual casual demeanor prevalent even in the tensest of situations.

"I think I have, but you're not going to like it…" Daniel said

"When do I ever?"

"Well, this is apparently a temple for both Nyarlethotep and King Ghidorah"

"Whoa, hold up—Ghidorah? Explains the dragons…"

"Apparently Nyralethotep loves Chaos and Destruction…so aiding something like Ghidorah is right up his alley…According to the text, his followers would come here to bring things that he wanted or needed in order to power his allies"

"I'm guessing something went wrong this time"

"Obviously"

"Colonel," Major Samantha Carter's voice called out, "I think I found something."

Col. O'Neill left Dr. Jackson with the ancient text and joined Carter near an alter at the far end of the chamber.

"What is it?" he asked as he approached.

"Would you believe a calling card?" She answered

The picked up the small, white card in her gloved hand and showed it to the Colonel.

"Who the hell is Lupin the Third?"

Underneath the three cities, something stirred; a mechanical monster with a roughly humanoid shape. It stood some 3 stories tall, colored with crimson and royal purple hues, its 'face' hidden in a mask of shadow.

Above it, scientist buzzed about like colonial insects, working and fussing over the hulking iron behemoth as if it were their queen. Updating its weapons systems and setting its programming.

The order had been given. The testing would begin to field test numerous new technologies in a military capacity against superhuman foes. Dr. Bolivar Trask smiled at the chance to let his project shine against all of the genetic anomalies that have popped up around the globe: non-terrestrials, genetic freaks, mutations (both natural and artificial) and other abominations before God.

The technicians, after many hours of work, cleared the launching platform as he personally began running diagnostics.

C:/diagnostics.exe

C:/Combat Systems Check

C:/Armor Check: NT-20 Synthetic-Diamond Armor/Heat Shield at 100 integrity

C:/Weapons Check:

Combat Lasers (x2): Operational

"Mega-Buster" Cannons (x3): Operational

Plasma Grenade (x1): Operational

Missile (x6): Operational, Loaded (10 rounds)

Mortars (x6): Operational, Loaded (10 rounds)

Impact Webbing Launcher (x1): Operational; Fuel: 100

Sonic Cannon (x1): Operational

Weapons check complete

C:/Fuel Check

Naquadah reactor at nominal output

Fuel lines fully functional

Jets at nominal output

C:/Sensory Equipment:

Camera 1: Check

Camera 2: Check

Camera 3: Check

Camera 4: Check

Nightvision/Thermal variants: Check. Check. Check. Check.

Radar: Check

Sonar: Check

EM sensors: Check

DNAnalyzer: Check

Sensory Equipment: Fully functional.

C:/AI: Activated

SNTL:/ awaiting commands…

C:/Run capturegenanom.exe

The huge machine activated, signified by the flash of its iridescent eyes, and moved towards the elevation-platform of the underground base. Its mission was about to begin.

Its cold mechanical voice echoed through the chamber.

"SENTINAL ACTIVATED. BEGIN SCAN FOR MUTANTS"

As Faith walked through the crowded streets of Manhattan towards the building, she bumped into someone, knocking the papers he was carrying to the ground.

Faith was just about to apologies to the man when she recognized him. His build, glasses, now-grayed hair…

"…Elektra?"

"…Egon?"

It was Dr. Egon Spengler, her first inter-um Watcher.

"Well, this is a surprise." He said calmly, with out any vocal intonation. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Faith could feel his agitation. "I thought you died. It would have made more sense, seeing as we didn't hear from you after they found Kylie's body…Why are you here?"

Faith felt like she was a little girl again, scared and alone. "It's a long story…and it's not a happy one."

Faith had first come to Egon with the name of "Elektra Nachios", he had assumed she picked it to garner the rep of the then believed dead assassin who had fought with the aging Daredevil in the early 1980's. In reality she chose this new moniker as a joke, a corruption of a favorite food from a local diner: the ultra-spicy "Electric Nachos".

She came to the Ghostbusters at first to discover what was happening to her. It did not take Egon long to identify her as a Slayer. They soon found her teaming up with the Ghostbusters on many cases aside from the problems she would encounter on her nightly patrols. Eventually, portents showed a rise of vampire activity in the South. Faith went down to Florida with Kylie Griffin, one of the new Ghosbusters, to inspect the situation. They had become very close friends during Faith's stay at the Firehouse, though Egon could sense something else between them. They apparently arrived too late to deal with the rise of the vampire known to experts as Dracula-Lothos. They followed one of his minions, an ancient vampire by the name of Kakistose, to Louisiana, where the vampire was trying to re-amass a power-base. Kylie was killed by the vampire and Faith went on the run, to Sunnydale—where the other Slayer was. Faith's story of fall and redemption held Egon's full attention. He especially perked up at the mentioning of the vampire with a soul and her epic battle with and the final defeat of her murderous uncle, Michael Meyers. With the help of her mother; whom she thought had died many years ago; they ended the reign of one of the most feared murders the US had ever known – a man as infamous as Jason Voorhees, Charles Lee Ray, Norman Bates, Bubba Sawyer or the Springwood Slasher: Freddy Krueger

When Faith finished her tale, Egon let it all sink in for a moment before he would consider a response:

"So, what do you plan to do now?"

"Depends if I don't get put back in the slammer tonight" Said Faith, unwavering certainty in her voice, "but if I don't, I'm going to come back here and we can talk some more…settle everything"

Faith returned to the Castle Wyvern, but was stopped before she got to the towers where she expected to see the Gargoyles. Owen Burnett walked towards her.

"Ms. Faith" he said, "If you are looking for the Gargoyles, they are in the main hall with Mr. Xanatos. I believe it would behoove you to join them as soon as possible."

"Why? What's going on?" She asked

"This way, please" he motioned to his left and lead her to the main hall. When they reached the room, she found only David Xanatos watching the events on the television screen unfold. He turned slightly, before getting up to great her.

"Ah, so you must be Faith I've heard so much about. It's unfortunate that our meeting will have to be cut short because as you can see"—Xanatos motioned towards the television screen "It seems you're desperately needed elsewhere."

Faith's eyes did not leave the screen one they passed over it. For on it she saw the Gargoyles fighting a losing battle against a large, humanoid machine. Its inhuman eyes shinning a demonic shade of orange, its body covered in red and purple colored armor…

To Be Concluded…

Coming up: The Heroes of New York vs. The Sentinel! Faith's Decision!


	5. Part 5: Cold Logic, Epilogue and Charact...

Title: The Trials of Faith Part 5: Cold Logic

Author: Majin Gojira

Category: Crossover/Action/Drama

Rating: PG-13

Type of Crossover: Wold Newton Universe based Crossover. This means very little comic continuity is kept, _especially_ after ret-cons. For latter convenience, I'll post a character sheet of characters that appear along with an origin and short history thereof.

Summary: This is it! The big finish! The Heroes of New York vs. the Sentinel! And in the end, Faith has to make one of the hardest decisions of her life…

Author's Note: It might help if you re-read the pervious chapters, since they have been edited and changed slightly, several times over…Oh, and I apologies not only for the delay, but the brevity. I've always aimed for about 5,000 words a chapter, and this one is very short.

Legal Stuff: Repeat ad Nauseum

Distribution: ASK! Damn you!

Ships: None…ever.

Faith ran in a blur of motion through the streets of New York, Gotham and Metropolis. Nothing was allowed to get in her way as she raced to face a foe she knew in her mind she could never defeat. Twenty-foot tall robots were not on a slayer's normal list of enemies, but she would do the best she could.

She leapt into the air and landed on top of one of the many vehicles clogging the streets. As the traffic continued to move, she leapt from vehicle to vehicle. If the nearby police officer had bothered to look in his radar gun, he would have seen the speed Faith was traveling at: an astounding thirty miles per hour; twice as fast as the world record, and she was not in a straight run either. No, she was hoping from the roofs of speeding cars onto others in a desperate race to save the lives of those who would trust her so readily. Trust she hardly knew, and was not ready to abandon.

It did not take long for her to spot the towering red and purple hued menace of metal and plastic. She could begin to see the battle's sway, in favor of the machine. It had already managed to incapacitate several of the gargoyles with a sticky-white substance that held even their strength in check. Indeed: only Goliath, Angela, Hudson and Lexington were still free and attacking the mechanical monster. The others were stuck to any nearby surface: be it wall, lamp post or sidewalk. For as long as the battle had been going, the Sentinel showed no signs of any damage so far. The gargoyle's claws could not penetrate the powerful NT-20 synthetic diamond armor that coated the metal monolith. Their futile slashing and clawing created long orange sparks over the robot's armor.

Faith made a quick scan of her surroundings before leaping into battle. She headed for a lamp post and with a long, mighty and strained pull, she uprooted it. It took some extra twisting and tugging to rip the wires from the base allowing her to charge into battle with the improvised club. She waited until the Sentinel was within range and slammed the metal tube on the robot's tremendous head. The metal pole deformed and bent to the contours of the behemoths armored cranium. She let go of it in shock—the tube still clinging to its head—as its head snapped around and its eyes shone a malevolent orange.

"MUTANT LIFE SIGNS DETECTED" it boomed, "PROCEEDING WITH CAPTURE AND IDENTIFICATION"

Faith dove to the side as bolts of yellow shot forth from its eyes, heating a small portion of cement where she stood only seconds before to a bright orange with heat. As it did, the gargoyles resumed their assault, landing on the armored back of the machine, trying to work their talons in between the heavy plates and rip them off. Lexington took to trying to unscrew the bolts with his claws. With this, he was having some amount of success as the large hands of the Sentinel tried to swat the nuisances aside.

Before Faith could think of her next method of attack, a car flung through the air, striking the Sentinel in the chest. The machine lost its balance and began to fall, the gargoyles quickly scattering as the titanic form toppled to the ground. Faith turned to see who had attacked and a smile grew on her face as one of the most well known citizens of Metropolis stood before her. The Man of Steel himself: _Superman._

The Sentinel righted itself faster than any of them expected. But as it did, a glob of white covered the Sentinel's 'eyes'. Spider-girl had joined the fray, and used her webbing to blind their mutual enemy. But even with it's 'eyes' covered with webbing, it continued to move uninhibited until a golden rope was flung around its torso. Holding the rope were two grand symbols of the power, conviction and zeal of the United States of America: Wonder Woman and Captain America.

Before any of the others could comment, the air was filled with the roar of a jet engine. The Bat-Plane flew low through the concrete canyons with its only lethal weapons armed. Twin missiles launched from under the jet and shrieked towards the crimson colossus, striking it with tremendous force and clouding the streets with smoke. The jet turned up and prepared to swing around to survey the damage.

Through the smoke, Faith could see a large patch of glowing orange consolidate in a relatively small circle. The Sentinel stepped forward from the smoke unharmed!

Twin beams shot forth from its 'eyes': burning away the webbing, freeing its optic beams for use more accurate use.

It turned and put one of its massive hands on the golden lasso around it and gave a sharp tug. For all the strength and power of Capitan America and Wonder Woman, they could not ignore physics. Their light bodies were easily pulled off the ground and their grip on the rope compromised. Both ducked and rolled away as the Sentinel pulled the unbreakable rope up and over it's body and tossed it aside.

The Sentinel scanned the area again, assessing the situation. Eight humanoid life forms its programming told it were to be identified as 'mutants', and two humans in a jet. Its sensors read the presence of several other 'mutants' who would arrive within minutes. It computed its options and ran through all the possible scenarios in the span of thirty seconds where it remained motionless.

The heroes waited around the machine, waiting for its next move, when its voice boomed out again: "SWITCHING TO FULL COMBAT MODE"

The Sentinel's chest opened and expanded, revealing a camera-like lens in the center of its chest as well as six evenly distributed ports around the lenses. Ports on its shoulders opened up, revealing mortar shells. Its arms modified themselves. The right arm split into three symmetrical cannons and its left arm split into a twin-clawed hand with one similar cannon placed between the claws.

"Full Combat Mode?" Lexington asked in horror

"Guess it's done playing with us" Faith growled.

As the Bat-Plane made a second pass, the Sentinel fired a volley of 6 missiles from the evenly distances ports in its chest. Quickly doing on the defensive, the plane veered right, taking the missiles with it.

The Sentinel turned to the others and began to unleash a volley of energy blasts from the three cannon on its right arm. The heroes dodged the blasts, whose technicolor bolts created large craters in the street.

Spider girl began to unload her webbing at the base of the robot's feet in a wide spray. At first it slowed him down, and then its feet stuck fast to the ground. She continued tying up the arms and then the head, binding its joints together. Attaching two lines of webbing to the titan and depressed a small switch on her web-shooters. Thousands of volts of electricity shot through the Electro-Webbing she had sprayed the Sentinel with. It seemed to screech in pain but then in a blinding flash, the electrical arc was dissipated and the webbing evaporated! Spider-girl regained her wits just in time to dodge the immense claw of the metal monolith slicing into the building she hung from. Even then, the blow took down the wall of the building and despite her superhuman reflexes she was partially buried under the rubble.

Superman and Wonder Woman leapt towards the Sentinel—only to be blasted back by an orange beam from its chest—a Plasma Grenade. Both heroes steaming bodies flew down the street as it then began to unleash a full volley of beams, missiles and mortars at the gathered heroes. The volley quickly turned the immediate area into an area akin to Europe during World War Two: a sea of burned out buildings and cratered streets.

Captain America, veteran of that war, was unintentionally given the home-field advantage! Leaping from behind a destroyed truck, he flung his shield at the monstrous machine. If skimmed across the NT-20 armor on the first pass, but on the return, severed one of the arm-mounted canons. The Sentinel fired back but Captain raised his shield and deflected the bolts of energy before diving back under cover.

"He's only armored on the surface!" He shouted, "He's vulnerable inside!"

Suddenly, the Bat-Plane flew overhead again, passing over the Sentinel from the rear—causing the missals following it to strike the metal monster's back, toppling it over, and opened two massive holes in its armored hide.

Hudson, Angela and Goliath, hearing Captain America's words, struck whilst the Sentinel was still righting itself—tearing into the arms and disrupting the complex machinery inside them. The arms refolded to normal mode as the Sentinel stood again.

But Faith was waiting there with a 'stop' sign, she threw it through the air like a javelin with all the strength in her body and through sheer luck, her improvised bolt managed to hit the Plasma Grenade launcher, imbedding the bottom tip at the edge of the weapon's lens. Before the Sentinel could react to this new development, Superman and Wonder Woman struck the stop sign with massive blows that drove the projectile all the way through the Sentinel. Electricity arced over the machine and it lurched and jolted about out of control before finally freezing up and collapsing to the ground like an unbalanced statue, kicking up a huge cloud of dust and debris, the light of its eyes fading away as it 'died'.

A quiet fell over what seemed the entire city as the civilians slowly came out of hiding. A cheer built up amongst the newly gathered crowed. Faith just stood, absorbing the cheers, a smile came to her face—but as she looked around, she remembered the other heroes. They acknowledged the cheers gratefully, but were more concerned with helping their fallen comrades. Faith snapped herself out of her euphoria and went to help pull Spider-girl out of the rubble.

Hoisting over her shoulder, her cell phone suddenly sprang to life. Holding the limp superhero in one hand and the cell in the other, when a voice she did not want to hear assaulted her ear.

"Congratulations, Ms. Faith." Lex Luthor intoned. "That certainly was an impressive display."

"Hardly the time for idle chat, 'L'" Faith hissed through clenched teeth as she took a misstep and aggravated a bruise from the battle.

"Of course, I'm calling to tell you that your mission in here is now complete. Congratulations."

For an instant, Faith's world was a blur. She was free. _Free!_ It was over…but it didn't feel like it was over. Though she had just been pardoned, she still felt it. The guilt of what she had willingly done. What she had accidentally done. What her anger and lack of control had caused her to do. It was all still there. The threat she gave Elisa for that one comment…

_"There are five basic torture methods, detective. If you tell ANYONE about my son I will _personally _introduce you to _every single one of them!_"_

She stood there, silently contemplating everything that had happened to her since she arrived, all of the friends, all of the enemies:

_"But you shall not forget them! No, you have placed yourself in their way. So they shall haunt you until your final death!"_

_"It's like a drug; Helpin' people. It feels good every time you do it. Even if you don't get any recognition for it…it just_ feels_ right."_

That is when she made her choice.

"Send me back." Faith whispered.

"What?" his surprise was audible.

"Send me back. I'm not ready to be out in the world again." She insisted.

"Are you sure about this?" Luthor pressed, "This _is_ a one time offer and nothing that happened here will reflect on any paroles you'll have in the future. Are you really sure you want to go back?"

"…Yes"

Luthor was intrigued by this latest development. He thought for a moment. "Very well then. Go with Captain America and Wonder Woman. They will know what to do."

Just because he found Faith's choice surprising, didn't mean he was not prepared for such a decision. Disappointing though it was, it ruled out several plans he had waiting for her, but others were still viable.

Lex Luthor the Third, president of the United States, hung up his phone and turned to the man in front of him: General Jake Taggart.

"General Taggart," Luthor began. "The weapons test went as expected. The weapons for Mechagodzilla seem to be functional as do some of the systems. The nanotubes proved viable, but the program governing the machine's actions did not keep up with its possibilities. An Artificial Intelligence for something the size and scope of Mechagodzilla is simply not feasible."

"I figured as much," General Taggart stated, "despite the advances made, too much computing power is put into simply _standing up_ to let a machine like that fight effectively."

"This leaves the Mechagodzilla program with only one option left: the VR control unit. Get the technicians to begin installing the VR control system in Mechagodzilla."

"Yes sir." General Taggart paused, "If I may ask sir, are you going to ok the Sentinel Program?"

Luthor nodded, "No, despite me and my family's illustrious history with Metahumans, there simply are not enough of them to warrant the drastic claims of Dr. Trask. I'm going to suggest he seek psychiatric help in dealing with his prejudices" Luthor grinned slightly.

"Thank you, Sir." General Taggart saluted, turned on a pivot and exited the oval office, leaving Luthor alone to contemplate all that had happened that day.

Some Time later.

Faith walked down the prison corridor to the visiting area. She was a little curious as to who would be coming to see her. Partially fearing a government agent of some kind, she was almost floored by who was waiting for her on the other side of the visitor's area. She slowly sat down and picked up the phone.

"They told me my lawyer was here to see me. You my lawyer now, Wes?" Faith jabbed, but her tone of voice was calm and measured.

"Hello, Faith. How are you?" Wesley answered, simply.

"Still alive. Never thought I'd live long enough to see you paying me a visit."

"A lot's happened." He certainly looked like a lot had happened. Scars, stubble and a look in his eyes she had never seen before…

"Whatever it is suits you. I mean, you're looking... good."

"You know what's going on in L.A.?"

"Seen the news, sure. Never-ending night, rain of fire. Team Angel must really have their hands full." It reminded her a bit of the Sentinel's short rampage. She couldn't help but wonder if anyone she saw there was over in LA right now lending a hand. What could keep them away from a disaster of that magnitude? The heroes who did travel were likely there. She was going to ask if they were there, but Wesley spoke before she could form the words.

"You don't know the half of it."

She guessed that meant that they were not. What could be worse than the situation in LA that was keeping them busy? She leaned forward.

"But you're here to fill in the blanks for me. Why?"

"We need you."

Definitely no.

"Well, uh, I hate to wet the paper for you, Wes, but I'm kinda unavailable right now. Maybe you want to check back in a few decades when my parole comes up."

She turned down legit freedom. Nothing he could say would get her to help them now.

"You need to know—"

"It's Armageddon again. I dig. The last thing you need's me in the mix. Besides, Angel'll come shining through in the end like he always does."

"Angel's gone, Faith."

Faith froze. Her blood ran cold; she could here the mocking laughter of Nyralethotep in her mind.

"Angelus is back." Wesley finished.

How? Angel…he was gone and a monster was in his place. The laughter grew more contemptuous. She chose to go back, was this the price?

Faith locked eyes with Wesley and flatly told him: "Step away from the glass"

The End

(Closing notes: HA! You thought I was going to fully go into an AU with all the Wacky Crossover Madness I pulled! That is not the spirit of the Wold Newton Universe. Canon remains canon (in all but the most extreme cases), no meeting/crossover can really change that. And this is no exception. Overall, I don't really like this story, it's incoherent and jumbled plot is fun, but not well organized. There may be a future sequel detailing the entire "Jamie Lloyd" connection, but that's an iffy statement.)

This is the Character Back Story/History list

(1) Faith – Faith first appeared in 1998 on _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_. She is the main character of our story. She was a Slayer, much like Buffy, but had a lot of issues with commitment, rejection, cruelty and sexuality…she eventually messed up, went evil, then repented and turned herself in. This is where we meet up with her in our story. Her Wolded history will be mostly revealed as the story progresses. For those who didn't read the story and want to know: Her real name is Jamie Lloyd. Her mother is Laurie Strode/Meyers (_Halloween_), her father Martin Lloyd (_Halloween 2_) and her uncle is Michael Meyers (the entire _Halloween_ series). For fans of the Halloween series, only 1, 2, 4 and H20 are considered canonical. The others can be considered trite ploys by Hollywood to make money.

(2) Lex Luthor the Third – as explained in the story, this is the grandson of the old Superman Villain, Lex Luthor. He is currently president of the United States of America, and is still somewhat of a megalomaniac, power-hungry 80's businessman that he became post "Man of Steel #1".

(3) Batman/Bruce Wayne Jr. – 3rd man to hold the mantle of Batman, and son of the original (and unless you value your spleen, NEVER call him Jr.). Everyone knows the origin of Batman, his family kept up the job as the original grew too old to do it with any regularity. At this point, Bruce Wayne Jr. is around 52 and thinking of retiring his cape and cowl, but much like his father, he's to stubborn to quit yet. His mother was Bruce Wayne's first wife, Julie Madison (a not-so-well-known star from the 1940s).

(4) Alfred Pennyworth – though this is only a guess, it is still likely that Alfred is still in the employ of the Wayne family (him not being the first butler of the family). He is still rather old at this point in time, and thinking of retiring after Ms. Wayne (Bruce's daughter—explained fully below) comes of legal age.

(5) Bane – What you know from the comics generally holds true, as he is still only a recent creation. Most of his back-story is explained in the story, with no further need here.

(6) Lady Shiva – Another rather recent addition, though she is starting to show her age a little (be that she first appeared as a teenager in the late 70's/early 80's). She is a deadly assassin with a death wish and superb martial arts ability—she even bested Batman.

(7) Batgirl/Lana Wayne – the Daughter of Bruce Wayne Jr. (Batman) and Kara Kent (Supergirl, the daughter of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Yes, he could father children. He's not "Punch a hole in time" strong in this universe, people!). She inherited only a minor bit of her grandfather's super-abilities to the point where she is just above peak human performance. Born in 1977, she took up the mantle of Batgirl in 1990, and has been the third person to do so. With no real male air to the "Batman" name at this point, it is likely that she will take over the mantel and simply call herself "the Bat".

(8) The Scorpions – this is the New York gang that inspired the Marvel, Spider-man Villain "The Scorpion". They are known for poisoning victims with darts and acid sprays—hence the name.

(9) Ben Grimm – Aside from some exaggeration, this is version of Ben Grimm is similar to the original in terms of personality, but his history has a much darker turn: he is of a rare breed of Lycanthrope—spawned by the infamous Edward Hyde. He is, in fact, related to him. Edward Hyde also passed on his Lycanthropy to the Incredible Hulk. Though in both cases, it took a fierce dose of radiation to bring out the latent curse. Ben Grimm and the other members of the Fantastic Four did go around the world helping with disasters (and they did indeed clash with Doctor Doom on occasion), but they disbanded in the 1970s under less than happy terms. Ben has spent most of his time alone in New York, helping keep his neighborhood safe from street crime when he can.

(10) Gwen Raiden – No, the Academy she went to was NOT the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Her Grandfather was the product of a German Electric-soldier experiment that later escaped and became better known as the Spider-man villains "Electro" and "The Shocker". There was a period in his life where he was powerless, and that is when he fathered Gwen's father, who passed the genes for electricity production, absorption and projection down to her. "Lucky" is such a positive word for this…

(11) The Kingpin – as explained by the story, he is a clone of one of the Luthor Brothers: Lawrence (the others are better known as Prince Zarkon and Dr. Evil, among others). He is responsible for turning Mr. Edward Hyde into the monster known as Doomsday (when you implant the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" Hyde with Bionic Limbs (a-la the "6 Million Dollar Man"), Kryptonite Spurs and finish the package with some primitive gene therapy and some DRI (Demon Research Initiative) findings, you get one hell of a monster!). Like all of his family, he is bald and generally 'evil'.

(12) Spider-Girl/May Parker – the daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane-Watson. She inherited her powers from her father (obviously), though they have a much more sinister origin. The Parkers were part of a breeding cult set up by the Nine (evil organization with delusions of creating genetically superior humans through selective breeding. In the not-so distant future, they will have agents known as Familiars, and one renegade member of this origination will create super-soldiers for the government under project Manticore…this is why I love the Wold Newton Universe). The Parkers were of a special line of Blind-Seers that produced two types: blind humans who could see the future, and superhuman blind fighters who could also have brief glimpses of future events. Peter was born with these genes dormant, it took the science-fair accident to spark them, though he did not go blind like his not-so-distant cousin, Matt Murdock—the Daredevil. He passed on these genes to May (who, when she was kidnapped, had undergone extensive gene therapy to ensure that they came out).

(13) Dr. Egon Spengler – of All Continuities, really. Not just from the movie or jut the cartoon—all of them. No further information needed.

(14) Broadway – A Gargoyle from the series of that name. Like the other Gargoyles, little has changed from what is known from the show.

(15) Angela – See Above

(16) Arisen Lupin III – The self-proclaimed Gentleman-Thief. Lupin the Third is the grandson of the original Arisen Lupin, the first Gentleman-Thief. He is a distant relation to Remus Lupin's family of Wizards, being that Arisen's side of the family is predominantly French and Squib/Muggle. He goes around the world looking for new challenges to test his criminal mind, often he ends up stealing from other crooks.

(17) Gigen – Lupin's trusted friend and expert marksman.

(18) Goemon – A skilled swordsman from Japan who has aided Lupin on many heists.

(19) Owen Burnett/Puck – Aside from what the authorial notes indicate, nothing else is worth noting.

(20) Elisa Maza – from "Gargoyles", little changed from the series.

(21) Matt Bluestone –As above (though he did once work with one Fox "Spooky" Mulder when both worked with the FBI).

(22) Brooklyn – As above

(23) Lexington – As above

(24) Hudson – As Above

(25) Goliath – as Above

(26) Bronx – As above

(27) Draco Malfoy – Yes, its 2003 and he is all grown up. He's about as old as Faith is, actually (early 20's) and he's still a self-interested little prick. He has even made deals with some of the "darkest creatures" known to him.

(28) Nephren-Ka – If ever there was an Amalgamated Character in this series, Nephren-Ka is it. He is a goa'uld – a parasitic worm that takes human hosts and controls them completely. He is a servitor for Nyralethotep—one of the Outer Gods, who serves Azathoth—the blind idiot at the center of the universe and the embodiment of the cosmic principle of Death. Nephren-Ka and Nyarlethotep both work to spread chaos and madness throughout the human population because they like it, but they usually forgo maddening the masses and take personal interest in one unfortunate victim.

(29) Nyarlethotep – He is the messenger. The heart and soul of the Outer Gods. He is the only one to have a true personality. To him, causing madness and insanity is more important than death and destruction. One day, it is said, that he will destroy humanity or the entire planet. He is a mocking figure, contemptuous towards his masters: Azathoth—the Daemon King and Embodiment of Death; Shug-Niggurath—the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young and Embodiment of Life; and Yog-Sothoth—the embodiment of Time and Dimension. These constitute the unholy trinity of the Wold Newton Universe. Some know him better in comics as a being known as "The Mad Titan Thanos" and "Darkseid", but he is one being…with a thousand forms.

(30) Dr. Daniel Jackson – Like the other characters from _Stargate SG-1_, his history is generally unchanged (except when previously noted)

(31) Colonel Jack O'Neill – as above

(32) Major Samantha Carter – as above, though she is related to the not-so-well-known "John Carter of Mars", and the unfortunate Randolph Carter.

(33) Dr. Bolivar Trask – Scientists and human supremacist, creator of the Sentinel's in the X-men Comic book. Last I checked, the X-men were possibly going to be included in the WNU, but the article regarding them has yet to be written as far as I know, so I am corrupting the character for my own purposes.

(34) Sentinel – a giant robot of doom, only a recent development, based on the Marvel Comic's character of the same name and is designed to serve the same function.

(35) David Zanatos – as the other _Gargoyles_ characters, he is generally unchanged except when noted.

(36) Superman (II) – Grandson of Clark Kent, Samuel Kent has taken up the mantle of his now crippled Father (thanks to Doomsday-Hyde). Interesting side note is that he is actually Asian; his mother is named Mei-Lei, daughter of one of the survivor of a clan of elite martial artists who defeated a Dracula Soul Clone and the legendary Seven Golden Vampires. Confused yet? You should be! For more on the Superman Family, check the Wold Newton main site, linked in the first chapter. If the link doesn't work: Google it!

(37) Wonder Woman (III) – The third generation of Wonder Woman, Granddaughter of the original, Lyta Trevor. Look to the World Newton Universe main site for a full article detailing the difference between Wonder Woman here and her comic book counterpart.

(38) Captain America (I) – The original, near immortal, revived Steve Rogers. An article detailing all of the changes has yet to be formalized, but information can be found on the Wold Newton main site. The character is essentially the same, minus certain outlandish experiences.

(39) General Jake Taggart – a major character in the Marc Cerasini Random house Godzilla novels. Namely: _Godzilla 2000, Godzilla at the Earth's Core_ and _Godzilla vs. the Robot Monsters_. He ran G-Force and Project Mechagodzilla. The character has no changes but is obscure enough to warrant an explanation.

(40) Wesley Wyndham Price – Major character in _Angel_. His role is unchanged.


End file.
